To hell and back
by insinr8
Summary: Old enemies come out. Are they allies now? And what do they want with Ichigo? No pairings yet. Rated T for language
1. Prologue

**Yo. It's my second try at a good story. The first one flamed out badly.**

**Only doing this once: I don't own Bleach, or any of the characters.**

**What could possibly be worse than Aizen and an army of murderous Arrancar?**

**---**

To hell and back

Prologue: New Enemies?

Yoruichi streaked across the sky of Karakura, searching for any threats that could possibly materialize. After her run-in with the new Arrancar in the park, she knew that no one in the town except herself, Tessai and Kisuke were ready to defend themselves against any attack, let alone all of Karakura.

She paused while perched on top of a bridge. Until Ichigo finished his training with Shinji and company, the three of them would have to take a more active role in defending the town. She didn't entirely mind. Doing mindless hollow-slaying was a way to keep herself from pondering what she could possibly have done to help to avoid the situation that all realms had to deal with now: Aizen's defection and perfection of the Arrancar.

She sighed. His defection was trouble enough seeing as he took two others with him, one of which was the older prodigy among the captains, Ichimaru. Ichimaru was one of the most cunning captains that the Thirteen Court Guards had, and an irreplaceable asset (although he had never really been one to begin with). But Aizen hadn't been content merely to take one of Soul Society's best and brightest. He had also dragged Isshin's son into the mess, stolen the Hogyoku and had built up an army of Arrancar capable of destroying Soul Society. She sincerely hoped that no other threats would materialize. There was little chance that the three of them would be able to adequately defend against it.

It was not to be.

"Still the Goddess of Flash eh? I remember when my sister continuously fought you for that title, Yoruichi."

She whipped around, praying that it wasn't who she thought it was.

"Enishi?!"

The short hooded figure that she called Enishi perched on the other side of the bridge, his head angled slightly.

"Not happy to see me?"

"But you were sealed away! You and-"

"Don't remind me."

She got into a ready defensive stance.

"What do you want here?"

"Oh, nothing much. I was just ordered to find where Kurosaki Ichigo is," he replied casually.

"What do you want with him?"

"I don't recall that it's any of your business."

"If anything concerns the safety of Karakura town, it is my business!" she hissed.

If she could have seen under the hood, it's possible that she might have seen his eyebrows jump slightly.

"Am I to take it that you won't be telling me anything?" he asked.

In answer, a concentrated burst of reiatsu erupted from Yoruichi's back and a small white aura formed about her.

"Shunko."

Enishi shook his head. "Very well," he said as he grasped the dark gray cloak he wore. "it appears that I will have to use force." He yanked the cloak off himself. Underneath, he was covered in a silvery gray reptilian armor embossed with glowing symbols. The most prominent features were the large rune on his chest, the smaller one on his helmet, and the helmet itself; two side slits served as eyeholes and three short horns protruded from an otherwise featureless mask. He cracked his neck and positioned himself in a ready stance. Unlike with Yoruichi, there was no swirling of barely controlled reiatsu. Yoruichi reminded herself that this man didn't _have_ control; he _defined_ what control was.

She charged forward in an attempt at a fast front strike. Enishi casually swatted her blow away. She tried to follow up with a kick to the left. He blocked with his right arm, slid his left hand under her foot, palm down, and shoved her leg away from him. The element of surprise completely forfeited, she engaged him in blindingly fast close combat. What surprised her wasn't how easily he blocked her blows, but the fact that he was making no attempt to counter with strikes of his own. He seemed content to remain purely defensive. Suspicious, Yoruichi withdrew to a safe distance. Enishi smirked behind his mask.

"I see that a century in exile hasn't dulled your skills. But they appear to be somewhat deficient in a case like this."

"Speak for yourself. You haven't landed a blow on me either!"

Enishi cocked his head. "Oh haven't I?"

With a loud crackling sound, Yoruichi's arms and legs were suddenly encased in thick growths of ice. She looked at them, stunned, as the coating froze her limbs.

_'What?! When did he-Shit! I forgot that he was the master of all ice techniques!'_

"You made several mistakes Yoruichi. Number one: I didn't have to attack you myself. You lunged at me. Every one of your blows that I countered gave me a contact point. Number two: I am the best of the four of us besides _him_ when it comes to controlling energy. Your Shunko is a simple exercise at best," he demonstrated by revealing a cool blue aura around himself. "Number three: ice defeats lightning, and your natural affinity is lightning. Number four: you attacked despite the fact that you are severely outclassed. A warrior should choose their fights carefully.

"And number five…"

"I'm faster than you," a second Enishi whispered in her ear as he delivered a palm strike to her back. Three things happened. Both images of Enishi flickered out of existence as he left the scene. Yoruichi fell from the aerial battleground, unconscious from the blow. And as she fell, another thick coat of ice was spreading from the contact point on her back. She would have shattered upon striking the ground if a gigantic flying blanket hadn't wrapped around her, halting her downward movement, before unfurling to reveal that next to her was a worried Kisuke Urahara, eyeing her frozen form from between his infamous bucket hat and his fan. As they were transported to Urahara's shop, he glanced up at the place where she had fought.

_'Did she really fight him? I thought that he was gone for good. Get a hold of yourself Kisuke. Speculation won't get you anywhere. Best wait for her to wake up.'_

***

A certain mustached shop assistant was waiting for him when the carpet arrived. Wordlessly, he and Urahara hauled the Shihouin Princess to the hot spring in the training chamber underneath his shop. Then, while Tessai tried to thin out the ice, Urahara went back up to greet a wary white-haired midget, a busty orange haired woman and a tattooed red-head who had sensed what had happened near the bridge.

"Why hello Hitsugaya-san, Abarai-kun, Rangiku-san."

"Urahara…" Hitsugaya drawled. "what was that disturbance near the river?"

"Um, well… you see…"

"Urahara…" the midget growled, vein pulsing on his forehead.

"Maa maa, taicho-san. It would be easier for you to see first."

"If we see what first?" Renji queried.

Urahara simply beckoned them to follow him. They all jumped down into the training grounds. Tessai walked over.

"Ah, hello. Perhaps you could help me with this."

"Having trouble Tessai?" Urahara asked.

"The coating is incredibly resistant. My kido hasn't shown any effect on it."

"Hmm…"

"Um, Urahara-san, what is this about?" Matsumoto wondered.

In answer, he led them over to the spring. Hitsugaya's and Renji's eyes widened, while Matsumoto let out a startled gasp.

"What the hell-!"

"Yoruichi-san!"

The ice was completely unchanged. Scorch marks and gashes in the nearby rock supplied silent testimony as to Tessai's efforts, and yet not a single sliver of ice had come off.

"Hitsugaya-san," Urahara began. "explanations can wait. Can you help us remove the ice?"

Vacantly nodding, Hitsugaya unsheathed his zanpaku-to and attempted to cut the ice away while trying to figure out who could have done this. Renji and Matsumoto followed suit. As it turned out, zanpaku-tos were much more effective, and much of the ice was soon on the ground rather than covering Yoruichi. Urahara and Tessai then carefully lowered her into the hot spring, hoping to melt the ice quickly. Then Tessai ran off to set up a bed for her after she thawed out while Hitsugaya demanded an explanation.

"Maa maa. I have no idea what happened myself other than the fact that she was frozen and about to hit the ground when I got there."

"But she _was_ attacked. All of us could sense the spike in spiritual pressure. And off-hand, I don't know of anyone in Soul Society or anywhere else that is fast enough to catch her, particularly if she could evade Kuchiki-taicho. And we definitely don't need new enemies."

"Sir?" Tessai interrupted. "Ishida-san, Inoue-san, Kuchiki-san and Sado-san are here."

Uryu, Orihime, Chad and Rukia came down into the training grounds.

"Rangiku-kun?" Orihime chirped.

"Hitsugaya-taicho." Chad inclined his head respectfully.

A familiar vein pulsed on Hitsugaya's forehead again.

"Finally, someone remembers my title..."

"Renji? Matsumoto-fukutaicho? So you guys sensed it too?"

"Alright, we're all here," Urahara commented before Renji could respond to the violet-haired midget. "Now, I know you all have questions, but they will have to come later." He indicated with his fan where Yoruichi was, now half-thawed. To their credit, the four newcomers didn't ask more questions; instead, they opted to wait until the other ex-captain was conscious.

***

As Yoruichi opened her eyes, Urahara's concerned face swam into view. He seemed oddly tinted, as though she was seeing him through a screen of some sort. Shivering, and with a great effort, she looked to the side to see Orihime with her hands outstretched kneeling and facing her. '_Her Soten-Kishun. So that's what it is_…_wait! What happened?'_ Behind her, standing against the wall of the room she was in, were Renji, Matsumoto, Rukia, Uryu and Chad.

"Ah, you're awake." Urahara stated, deadpan "You gave us all a scare when we found you looking like an ice sculpture."

_'I remember now. Enishi…'_

"Hnn. You acting serious for once, Kisuke?"

"How can you say that?!" he exclaimed, his face in mock denial. "I'm always serious! Aren't I?" he turned to the others, who turned their heads away and whistled nonchalantly. Yoruichi smirked weakly.

"I rest my case."

Urahara hung his head in overexaggerated depression as a miniature thundercloud poofed into existence and began pouring rain over him. Uryu broke the comedic moment.

"Who did that to you, Yoruichi-san?"

Yoruichi eyed Urahara as Tessai and Hitsugaya entered the room.

"Takahashi Enishi, former captain of the ninth division."

---

**Please tell me how it is. All reviews welcome.**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Panic in Soul Society

Inside the Captains Hall, the Twelfth Division members were quickly leaving after setting up a communications link to the Real World at the request of one Captain Hitsugaya. Meanwhile, back at Urahara's shop, said captain was pacing impatiently in front of the screen, his mind going back to what he had recently learned.

_Flashback_

_The revelation had less dramatic impact than an outside observer would have expected. While Captain Hitsugaya's and Urahara's eyes expanded to inhuman sizes, Renji and Matsumoto asked at exactly the same time:_

_"Huh? Who is he?"_

_Urahara seemed to have recovered by then and quickly explained._

_"Takahashi-taicho was the ninth division captain 125 years ago, before I or Yoruichi served. He was banished for the possession of forbidden powers nine years before I became a captain myself. His zanpaku-to was, or I should say is, Tsukiyomi, one of the most powerful ice zanpaku-tos of all time."_

_Hitsugaya snapped out of his trance._

_"But he was imprisoned along with the other three, including his former captain, in Hell 23 years ago! Nine captains and all Twelve of the Royal Guard worked to seal him and the others away! Not only that, but they were stripped of their powers! How could they have escaped?!"_

_"It is a little late to ask about that Hitsugaya-san. Perhaps we should focus on why he is here."_

_Yoruichi tried to push herself up. She stopped and hissed as her ribs, broken from being crushed on all sides by ice, ground against each other._

_"Gyuh! Damn it!"_

_"Yoruichi-san! Please wait! I haven't finished healing you yet!" Orihime cautioned._

_Urahara eyed the wounded Shihouin questioningly. Clutching her side despite the pain, she gasped out "He was after Ichigo!"_

_Once again, Hitsugaya and Urahara were caught off guard, but now they were joined by everyone else present._

_"What? Why would he be after Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime exclaimed_

_Still panting, Yoruichi ground out "I don't know…but it can't be for a good reason."_

_Captain Hitsugaya pulled out his communicator and walked out of the room._

_"Captain! Where are you going?" Matsumoto fairly jumped to follow him._

_"I'm contacting Soul Society. This is something that we can't let sit. Enishi Takahashi has returned, likely trailing the other three as well. Soul Society will have to send reinforcements to guard Kurosaki and make sure he is safe."_

_"Maa, Hitsugaya-san?" Urahara warned. "Kurosaki-san won't be very happy about this."_

_"Then he'll have to deal with it. For whatever reason, those four may want him. And we cannot afford to lose another ally."_

_Flashback end_

His thoughts were cut short as a sudden hissing and crackling and suddenly the screen showed the image of the other nine captains. Just as Urahara and a weakened Yoruichi entered the room followed by Renji, Matsumoto and Rukia, the Soutaichi spoke.

"You requested an immediate contact, Hitsugaya-taicho. What could be so urgent?"

"Soutaicho, just hours ago, Yoruichi Shihouin reported contact with ex-taicho Takahashi."

This pronouncement opened up a chance for a lot of chatter among the normally composed captains at the other end of the line.

"What? He returned?"

"But we all sealed him away!"

"Silence!" and there was. "Shihouin Yoruichi, do you have proof, absolute proof, that he has returned?"

Yoruichi pushed herself off of Urahara and struggled to stay on her feet. "I saw him up close and we fought in the skies above Karakura Town. Before he froze me solid, he wanted to know where Kurosaki Ichigo was."

There were a few murmurs at this and then Kenpachi fairly shouted "If I was him, I'd probably want to know that too!"

"Zaraki-taicho..." Yamamoto growled warningly. "Shihouin Yoruichi, do not lie. Did you tell him where Kurosaki Ichigo is?"

_'If I could stand straight and breathe right while doing it, I'd beat the crap out of you for accusing me of that, old man'_ she thought. And through the screen, she could tell that it was all Soifon could do to restrain herself from trying to attack the Captain-General.

"Of course not."

"Hmm..."

"Soutaicho?" Hitsugaya spoke up again. "I would like to request reinforcement in Karakura Town."

"Denied."

"W-what?"

"Hitsugaya-taicho, might I remind you that we are in a state of open warfare against Aizen? I admit that we need allies, but it would be the height of foolishness to weaken ourselves merely to protect one ally."

This was met with protests from several people present.

"Sensei!"

"Yama-ji, is that wise? Ichigo-kun has since proven himself to be a very useful and resourceful fighter-"

"-which is precisely why it is a fool's errand to place an extra guard on him. You have stated it yourself, Shunsui. The Shinigami Substitute is resourceful. He is surrounded by the other Ryoka and should be capable of taking care of himself, particularly in light of Aizen's latest incursion."

"Soutaicho," Surprisingly, this came from Byakuya. "this is likely not just Takahashi-taicho that we are speaking of, but Hanabusa-taicho and Namikawa-taicho as well. Although Kurosaki does posses great power-" _including that hollow of his_ "-he would likely be facing not just those three, but their old captain as well. Shihouin Yoruichi?" he asked as he turned to the screen.

"Yes?"

"Based on past experience, is Enishi at the same level as before, or is he far stronger now?"

Yoruichi paused for a moment to remember her fight. Before, Enishi would have been hard pressed to defend himself. That time however, he seemed almost bored.

"He is...far more powerful now, than before you and the Royal Guard sealed their powers."

"And would he have been able to defeat Kurosaki Ichigo?"

"Without a doubt."

"Hmm..."

"Perhaps we could send one more captain as aid..."

Soifon jumped at the chance. "Soutaicho, I request assignment to Karakura Town."

That got everyone's attention. Soifon shrank slightly as the wizened captain brought his full gaze to bear on her, but kept herself together. Finally...

"You know your duty, Soifon-taicho. Do as you will."

"Hai."

"Hitsugaya-taicho, remain at your station. Be on guard."

***

Seeing as Ichigo was training at the Vizards warehouse, it seemed natural that Soul Society's reinforcements took up positions around the complex. Soifon, Urahara and Yoruichi were stationed closest to the house to defend it while everyone else was moved farther out so that in the event of an attack anywhere, the response time would be just about equal. Uryu, Chad and Orihime were also on guard despite Urahara's and Yoruichi's protests. The idea being to allocate just enough power to fend off assaults until everyone else could come in. The first sign that the plan went out the window was when three widely separated Gargantas opened up and three armored figures emerged, making little attempt to hide their presence.

"Shit!" Yoruichi swore. "Three of them!"

"Uryu Ishida, Matsumoto, with me." Hitsugaya called. "We'll take the one in the north."

"Soifon! With me! We'll take the one to the west!"

"Hai Yoruichi-sama!"

"H-hey! Wait up!" Renji disappeared after them.

"Kuchiki-san, guard Miss Orihime. Madarame-san, Sado-san, let's go."

"Alright! Finally, a good fight around here!"

Enishi casually eyed the tenth-division captain and lieutenant as they approached.

"They sent for reinforcements."

_"As if I couldn't tell, little brother."_

Enishi bristled. "Call me that again, Sayu, and I'll send you back to the ice age."

_"Aww..."_

"I'm not that little!"

_"Right, you're just vertically challenged."_

_"Will you two shut up?! I'm trying to warm up before the fight here!"_

"Literally or metaphorically, Raiden?" Enishi muttered to himself.

_"Oh ha ha ha no. Shut up before I take your big stick and shove it up your ass."_

_"Oh,"_ Sayu chirped _"You mean it isn't already up there?"_

"Drop dead Sayu."

_"No time! We have to play!"_

"There's a difference for you?"

_"Hey, Jerkwad! Just because I like to have fun doesn't mean I play all the time!"_

"Hey Sayu? What state do you live in? Denial."

_"Ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! You gotta admit that was good!"_

_"You. Are. Dead. Meat. Little. Brother!"_

"Which one?"

He cut off the link to avoid Sayu's incoherent screaming. _Thank you for sound-proofed helmets._ Enishi thought as his three opponents finally reached him.

"Took you long enough to get here, taicho-san. Shall we get started?"


	3. Chapter 2

**I really should have put this in earlier. Thanks to Sad-ninja for betaing my story.**

**Please review!**

Chapter Two: Waaaaaaay outclassed

Hitsugaya yanked out his blade and took a classic guard position. Matsumoto did the same while Uryu readied his bow. Enishi withdrew a short wakizashi from behind his back and held it up, point down to his left, in his right hand.

"Pierce the night, Tsukiyomi."

The wakizashi lengthened into an azure spear, with a sapphire stone embedded on either side of the spearhead. Near, but not at the other end, a small ring connected the overwhelmingly larger part of the spear with a much smaller section at the end as long as Enishi's palm.

Matsumoto was entranced by the elegant weapon. Hitsugaya was not quite as catatonic, but just as reverent.

_Tsukiyomi...the moon dragon's fang and the most powerful ice based zanpaku-to in existence. I always wanted to know which one was really stronger: Hyourinmaru, or Tsukiyomi. But not like this._ He shook his head slightly.

"Matsumoto, snap out of it!"

Matsumoto angled her blade."Growl, Haineko!"

The blade melted into a dangerous stream of ash that streaked toward the renegade captain.

"Bankai! Daiguren Hyourinmaru!"

Hitsugaya gained icy wings, a tail and a dragon's head on his right arm while a much larger version exploded from his zanpaku-to and flew toward Enishi. Uryu unleashed the full might of Ginrei Kojaku's 1200 arrows per second on him. Underneath his helmet, Enishi grinned. He threaded his right index finger through the ring of his zanpaku-to and began spinning it in front of himself. The simultaneous impacts of Haineko, Hyourinmaru and the hail of arrows merely disintegrated against the blindingly fast rotating spear. Enishi moved it to the side and continued spinning it.

"You know what I think?" he asked as he suddenly caught the spear. Then in one move, a little charm around his left wrist flashed and formed a bow, which he slapped his zanpaku-to down onto and yanked back the string.

"I think you're outclassed."

And then he let go-

***

Chad let fly a massive blue energy blast. Raiden Namikawa simply swatted it away with his Scimitar and then smirked.

"I like baseball too, but now isn't the time to be playing."

"Yeah! Now is the time to be fighting!"

"Madarame-san-"

"Can it bucket hat! I wanna fight him by myself alright?"

_Bucket hat?_

Ikkaku yanked out his zanpaku-to, and then slammed the hilt against the sheath. "Extend, Hozukimaru!"

Raiden's eyebrows lifted slightly behind his mask as Ikkaku expertly twirled his halberd. "You're like my older brother. His zanpaku-to is a spear. This should be fun."

Madarame chuckled. "It won't be that fun unless you release your zanpaku-to as well!"

"Ne, Madarame-san-"

"Shut up! This is my fight!"

"Heh, I like your spirit. What division are you?"

"I'm the third seat of the eleventh division!"

"My captain's old division eh? Well, what are we waiting for?"

With a loud yell, Ikkaku flourished his halberd and charged forward with a vicious right swing. Raiden flipped overhead and aimed a slash at Ikkaku's head, which was blocked. The second Raiden landed, Ikkaku lashed out with a furious barrage of blows, all of them very lethal. Raiden ducked and dodged most of them, parrying a few before launching his own offensive. Both Urahara and Chad watched in silence as the exchange wore on, and Ikkaku's grin grew wider. Truth be told, he was enjoying this fight much more than he normally would. Raiden's fighting style was overwhelmingly similar to Kenpachi, who Ikkaku always admired for being the strongest (although that claim was now seriously in dispute). He relied on the long reach of his _sealed_ zanpaku-to, the incredible strength behind his one-handed blows and his seeming invulnerability to blades, which he demonstrated by catching Ikkaku's halberd by the spearhead midswing and throwing it to the side. Ikkaku took the chance to disengage.

"Not bad, Madarame Ikkaku."

"Heh, thanks!"

"But why are you holding back? You won't make a decent challenge if you don't use _it_."

Ikkaku's eyes widened slightly. "You know?"

" 'Knowing your enemies and allies can provide you the edge you need.' "

Ikkaku grinned, wider. "Urahara, Sado-san, can I trust you to keep this quiet?"

Urahara angled his head with a slight twist of his mouth. "Why is it that no one trusts me?" Chad simply nodded.

"Okay! Here goes! Bankai!" An explosion of wind and reiatsu engulfed the powerful third seat and raised an enormous dust cloud, obscuring him from view. When it cleared, Ikkaku was revealed holding his three gargantuan blades.

"Ryuumon Hozukimaru!"

Raiden whistled. "Quite a large set of blades there. Well, because you went all out, I'll show you my Shikai." He stabbed his Scimitar into the air with his right hand and then swung it slowly in a full circle. "Take flight and burn the skies, Amaterasu!"

As he held the blade now parallel to the ground and pointed to his left, it began to glow brighter and brighter. It finally burst into flames and began expanding. Raiden brought it above his head and began spinning it with two hands creating a massive column of fire, before swinging it down and to the right with his right hand. Excess energy leaking off of him ignited the surrounding air in an impressive display of power. If anyone could see underneath his mask, they would have seen an insane grin fixed into place. "Now, shall we?"

***

Renji kept his eyes on the lithe, gray armored figure as he spoke. "Yoruichi-san, who is this guy?"

"_She_, is my old rival, Hanabusa Sayu."

Sayu inclined her head. "Hmph. Nice to see you remember Yoruichi."

"Long time no see, wish it were longer."

"Oh come on...this is how you greet your old rival after all these years?"

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you came here searching for Ichigo."

"Oooh, that's why? I didn't know you were so stupid as to-whoopsie!"

Apparently, Soifon didn't take kindly to Yoruichi being called stupid. She had released her zanpaku-to and charged forward, blindingly fast and attempting to kill. Unfortunately, she wasn't anywhere near fast enough. In one second, Sayu had vanished only to reappear behind her yanking a cloth backward, hard. Said cloth was wrapped around Soifon's wrists and neck individually and was bound so tight that she could barely breathe.

"You always had a knack for teaching the temperamental," Sayu commented idly while Soifon struggled against the binds. "Still," she leaned her head in next to Soifon's ear. "I didn't know you picked them so...loyal," she breathed in a whisper.

"Soifon-taicho!" Renji readied his blade.

"Hmm hmm hmm. Time to play!" Sayu slingshot Soifon by swinging her on the cloth binding, sending her crashing headlong into an unprepared Renji, before she engaged Yoruichi. Soifon yanked away the cloth and with a very cat-like snarl joined the brutally fast and lethal exchange. Renji was entranced. Three masterful fighters, women no less, making attacks and defending so surely that it seemed to resemble a choreographed dance, albeit a very fatal one. Yoruichi and Soifon were perfectly double-teaming against the old "Flower of Death" of the Fifth Division. The seamless flow of strikes, swings, lunges, counters and evasions made him feel very inadequate. He resolved that if he survived this night, he was going to ask Yoruichi to teach him some hand-to-hand.

The key word being _if_. The dance was disrupted as Sayu grabbed Soifon's left leg and swung her into the dumbstruck Renji once again, giving him a very rude wakeup call. Suzemebachi came dangerously close to his heart as Soifon flailed wildly from the impact. Renji groaned and gingerly pushed the Special Forces Commander off of himself. He painfully tried to stand only to have Yoruichi crash into him sending him back down. Yoruichi and Soifon got back up and watched warily as Sayu unsheathed a blade from her back.

"I better let him have some fun too, or he's gonna yell at me later. I command you take form, Susanoo!"

The shunto lengthened and took on a silvery luster. Lightning danced along its length and a breeze started to pick up. She held the blade and made ready to lunge. Yoruichi and Soifon entered Shunko and got into position while Renji whimpered from the ground.

"Don't mind me...I'm just a freakin' doormat..."


	4. Chapter 3

**I notice that no one who does read my story is reviewing. Please do! I would like to know your thoughts!**

Chapter Three: Look Who it is

The spear-turned oversized arrow shot forward at near-impossible speed. Even if Hitsugaya had time to see who Enishi had aimed at clearly, he would not have been able to help. In the space of one second, the zanpaku-to had drilled through Matsumoto and left with a blood trail meters in length. Matsumoto only had time to glance down at herself and cough up blood before she started her fall toward the ground.

"MATSUMOTO!"

Ice rapidly formed from the wound and spread to encase her entire body. She would have shattered on the ground if not for what happened next.

Enishi, who had been holding the reishi bow out to his left, now twisted it so that it was pointed at a diagonal in front of himself, downward. The spear did the impossible. It turned almost completely around and was now heading back the way it came, but on a downward angle. As it rapidly closed the distance between itself and the ground, Enishi lifted his hand, and the bow, skyward. The spear grazed the ground not-so-coincidentally directly underneath the falling vice-captain as it turned up to fly back to its master, who caught it in his right hand. The patch on the ground gained a rapidly ascending ice column that seemingly wrapped around Matsumoto and prevented her from hitting the ground. Hitsugaya gazed incredulously over his shoulder at the spectacle.

"Surprised captain?"

Hitsugaya didn't answer, so Enishi turned toward Uryu, who was as close to jaw-dropping as he ever was.

"How do you have a Quincy Cross? How can you use it?!"

Enishi snorted. "Such arrogance. You Quincies are not the only beings who can manipulate reishi, although generally your kind is the most proficient at it. While this" he indicated the charm on his left wrist "may look like a Quincy Cross, it is not. It functions differently in that it converts my reiatsu into reishi, which I then manipulate, whereas a true Quincy Cross must draw in reishi from the air and condense it into a usable form.

"As for how I can use it? The powers of a Quincy are heavily dependent on control. And that is my specialty. I am not as fast as my sister, nor as strong as my brother. I make myself equal by having the greatest usage of my reiatsu between the three of us. To do this, control is critical. This" he indicated the bow itself. "is a trivial exercise in control."

Uryu bristled. _Trivial?! It took me years to learn how to control it effectively!_

Hitsugaya turned to face Enishi once more, his cerulean eyes glistening with rage. His zanpaku-to took on an eerie blue glow, and many columns of ice began to form around the three of them. He brought his blade up and pointed it at Enishi just as the last columns formed. Then he rotated the blade before slashing to the side. "Sennen Hy­ōrō!"

In an instant, hundreds of columns impacted together on and around Enishi's armored figure, seemingly crushing the ice master. Hitsugaya lowered his blade, panting as he stared through now half-lidded eyes at the icy tomb. Uryu took the opportunity to fire a near continuous stream of arrows at the mass, effectively nailing it together. It was for naught.

There was a flash from the center, and then a massive explosion. Large chunks of ice flew out at lethal velocities. Uryu had to concentrate in order to dodge them while Hitsugaya's dragon shield was battered and cracked by the barrage. Enishi stood exactly where he had been before the attack, with his spear clenched firmly in his right hand.

"Was that your final technique? Too bad. Game over." He pointed the spear at both of his opponents. "Kyuryuu no Hy­ōrō!"

Nine dragons, each one thirty feet in diameter, erupted from the spear and condensed on one point simultaneously: one mile above the hapless Quincy and Shinigami Captain. The enormous collision created a tidal wave that went into free fall and surrounded the two like a net, before the wave turned into countless three-foot-long needles. Enishi stretched out his hand and curved his fingers inward.

"Singularity-"

The countless needles all simultaneously shot toward one spot, compressing inward with such force that the resulting impact created a massive explosion that rocked the town. When the dust settled, Enishi could see Hitsugaya's ice dragon shield, what was left of it, and two heavily injured combatants. As he continued to watch, both fell from the sky and impacted the ground.

***

"Weellllll… there goes Enishi. Typical. And the little prick tells me not to go overboard," Raiden commented. "Then again, I really shouldn't be talking," he added as he turned back to his fight.

While Raiden was completely unscathed, the same could not be said of Urahara and Chad. The shopkeeper sported several partially cauterized wounds to his side and Chad had taken a brutal mauling when he made the mistake of trying to get in some close combat. Ikkaku was nowhere to be seen. The combative third seat had been smashed face first into the ground sometime ago and buried in rubble. The area was peppered liberally in massive craters, many of which were still smoking. On top of that, the area was encompassed by the veritable sea of flames that was normally attributed to the Captain General.

Urahara straightened up slightly. "Considering what… your real purpose _isn't_, do we… have to keep…fighting?"

Raiden paused. "It seems the captain was correct about your powers of observation and deduction. To answer your question, no, we don't have to keep fighting. But I enjoy this sort of thing, so unless you are willing, or more appropriately, able to back down, this will continue."

Urahara sighed and resigned himself as Raiden attacked once again.

***

Yoruichi dodged yet another blast of lightning while simultaneously evading a nearly invisible wind blade that missed by scant centimeters.

"Tehe, you can't dodge forever, Yoruichi!"

Yoruichi growled resentfully. She hated to admit it, but her one-time rival was indeed much faster than she was. So much for "The Goddess of Flash." Still, she wasn't down yet. "Wanna bet on that?"

Sayu answered by putting another crater in the ground precisely where Yoruichi had been.

_That was close! If I had been any slower, she would have cut me in half! What I would give to have Soifon right now..._

Unfortunately, Soifon was unconcious from bloodloss. When Sayu had released her blade, she had also unleashed a torrent of wind blades that carved up whatever was unfortunate enough to be in the way. Soifon had been completely unprepared and took the full power of the attack. Her entire left arm had been amputated at the shoulder and then cut to pieces while the rest of her body looked like an animal had raked its claws across her abdomen and legs. Orihime was going to be very busy after this...

Sayu fended off Yoruichi's strike and then overbalanced the counterswing leaving her left side wide open. Yoruichi took advantage of it and slammed her open palm against Sayu's ribs.

"Got you!"

Sayu then fell to pieces, literally, as a massive gash appeared on Yoruichi's back.

"How disappointing," Sayu commented while observing Yoruichi, collapsed on top of her rapidly-disintegrating decoy. "You forgot about my zanpaku-to's other abilities, like the power to make a clone of myself out of earth, which you tried to imitate with your _utsusemi_ technique. And why do you carry a blade if you don't use it? You only gave me another weapon." She twirled the short blade that she palmed from Yoruichi during the fight.

"D-damn it...ugh."

Sayu sighed. "Aw, I wanted to play some more...oh well!"

"Hey! Over here!"

Sayu turned in surprise. "So that's where you were. I was wondering what happened to the red pineapple lieutenant, but where's your zanpaku-to? And what's that huge white snake thing wrapped around you..."

Renji was dumbstruck. This person had been one of the most feared captains in Soul Society's history?! "It's my bankai!" he roared. "Hiho Zabimaru!"

"Ooh, that's what it is...and I've lost interest."

Sayu vanished only to reappear with her foot millimeters away from Renji's face. Renji was catapulted from the center of his serpentine bankai. He reoriented himself to try and attack, but Sayu was too fast and too close for him to defend properly. Amidst all the flying shadows of limbs, he never saw the one that snuffed out the world.

***

Enishi and Sayu shunpoed over to Raiden.

"What? You aren't finished yet?"

"Bug off! This is my fight!"

Enishi raised an eyebrow, though no one could see it. "I believe that an actual fight is when the opponents have a decent chance of causing damage to each other, Raiden."

"I happen to whole heartedly agree with Takahashi-san."

"Shut up bucket hat! No one asked you!"

"Our job is pretty much done now. We just have to wait for him to show up."

"Why can't you be serious like this all the time Sayu?"

"'Cause _I_ don't have a stick up my ass _little brother_!"

Sayu narrowly avoided being encased in a block of ice.

"I'll kill you!" Enishi roared in a very rare display of emotion. Sayu "eep"-ed and took off with Enishi chasing after her while wildly swinging his blade.

"Eh, bucket hat," Raiden commented while watching. "I think I'd rather watch this than continue the fight."

"Again with the "bucket hat" comment! Why does everyone seem to say that to me?"

Ten minutes later...

Enishi panted while Sayu danced tantalizingly out of range.

"Tehe, you still can't catch me _little_-"

"That's enough you two," Raiden intervened. We still have a job to do."

"Aww come on..."

"Remember what the captain said?" _Jeez, the way she acts, you'd think that she was the younger one..._

"But he still hasn't come yet-"

"HEY! ARE YOU GUYS THE DIPSHITS WHO HURT MY FRIENDS?!"

Raiden sighed and gestured. "You were saying?"

Uryu, Yoruichi and Hitsugaya all heard the strawberry blond and simultaneously thought _I'm going to skewer/skin/freeze that idiot..._


	5. Chapter 4

**Just to clarify, this is not just going to be a battle scene fanfiction. there is an actual plotline. Please be patient, and review!**

Chapter Four: Under the limit, in over your head

Ichigo was downright furious. His friends had been forced to fight for their lives against the assault that these three had instigated while supposedly _protecting _him. It should have been the other way around. He should have been protecting them! Oh boy were these pricks going to pay.

"So what if we are, Kurosaki?" This came from the shortest of the three

"Did Aizen send you guys? Huh?!"

The tallest figure stepped forward. "Do NOT put me in the same category as my erstwhile successor to the Fifth Division," she growled while unsheathing her blade. The last of the three put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"Cool it, Sayu," Raiden cautioned. "Our job isn't to kill him, yet. We were only supposed to send a message."

"Send a message? From who?!"

"Our captain wishes you to know that you are not nearly strong enough to protect your friends from the likes of Aizen," the short one answered. "and neither are they strong enough to protect you if he became serious about pursuing you. As this charade" he indicated the battle sites. "should indicate, no one here can stand up to Aizen except us, and we are the ones who fought only at his level. I reiterate: you are not strong enough. That is the purpose of our visit here." All three turned to leave.

"I won't let you get away with this! I'll beat the shit out of you and your captain! I'll make you pay for hurting my friends!"

Everyone stopped moving, and then Raiden, Enishi and Sayu turned to face the enraged shinigami substitute.

"Be careful what you say boy," Enishi warned.

"Ichigo?"

Ichigo turned to find himself face to face with Rukia, her expression one of an eerie calm, which vanished the moment she smacked him over the head.

"You idiot! Those three are former captains! If they beat Urahara and Yoruichi, you don't stand a chance! Run while you can you fool!"

Ichigo rubbed his head and glared back.

"I'm not going to run away and abandon my friends! I will make them pay for this, and their captain too!"

Enishi sighed. "Very well, Kurosaki. Since reason cannot sway you, a suitable demonstration on our captain's part will have to do. Raiden?"

Raiden unsheathed his blade and slashed the air behind himself. A glowing trail lingered before widening into a garganta that beheld a much taller armored figure. He wore a full length cape that appeared to merely be a longer version of the cloak Urahara wore, black with white diamonds at the hem. The domed helmet was devoid of any of the same runes embedded on the others, but he wore a massive circular rune in the center of his chest, giving him an odd resemblance to a hollow; an appearance that was strengthened by the clawed gauntlets and boots he wore. The newcomer stepped out and the garganta closed.

"Captain," Enishi explained. "it appears that Kurosaki needs force to see the light."

"…"

"We sort of let slip that we were here under orders…"

"…"

"Hey! Does he talk?"

"Only when he becomes serious Kurosaki, which should tell you a lot about his view of this apparent necessity."

"You bastards!" he snarled as he grasped his zanpaku-to. "I'll kill you!"

Ichigo recklessly charged at the silent colossus only to be stopped by Enishi.

"Since you have continuously stated that you wish to protect your friends, I thought I might call attention to a problem with that. You see this area right now?" he gestured at the surrounding ground. "That is only _one_ battlefield from _one_ of us fighting three of your friends. The power we use is great, but what our captain has access to is on a different level from us. His power dwarfs what all _three_ of us could put out. If you two were to fight here, the battle would take your injured comrades as collateral damage. So," he indicated a deserted section of the town in the distance. "I suggest that you take this fight elsewhere, or your friends will be caught in the middle. What say you?"

Ichigo gritted his teeth, but saw no way to avoid the issue. The silent captain wordlessly shunpoed over to the indicated area. Ichigo followed close behind. Rukia was aghast.

"What is that imbecile thinking?! He saw what just one of those three could do to us, and he went to fight their captain?!"

"Kuchiki-san, you have to understand that they have no intention of killing Kurosaki-san yet. They will try their utmost to sway him without killing him."

"And how do you know that, Urahara-san?"

"Because, Sado-san, they have stated themselves that their only intention is to send a message."

"B-but Kurosaki-kun will get hurt!"

"I'm sure that Kurosaki-san knew that going in, Inoue-san."

"You didn't answer me. I asked how you know that they don't have any intention of killing him. From what I saw, they don't need Ichigo in order to beat Aizen."

Urahara didn't reply. He simply continued to gaze at the two receding dots.

***

The ever-silent captain halted several hundred feet above the desolate area. Ichigo pulled up short thirty feet away.

"Who are you anyway?"

Enishi answered instead. "I will assume that since you know that he is our captain, you are requesting his name. The only name that we have for him is 'Captain.' Soul Society apparently saw fit to call him 'Kuromaru.' Why they did is something I've been asking myself for years."

"Well it's not that important to me. I just like to know the names of those who hurt my friends."

"As you say…" Enishi trailed off disinterestedly.

"I don't care now. You are all going to pay!"

Without further ado, Ichigo launched himself at the christened 'Kuromaru' in a violent sideways slash, which went skyward as the captain batted it away with no effort. Ichigo pivoted with the deflection and attempted another swing, this time aimed downward. The captain sidestepped the blow. It took several more tries before Ichigo grasped that full-power blows were never going to hit him. He revised his strategy and began to focus on quantity, raining blow after blow on the man before him. The captain suddenly jumped above a low slice and then threw a powerful right punch that Ichigo barely blocked with his cleaver. The blow still rocketed him almost straight down toward the ground. He slammed into it, bounced and reoriented himself while the captain smashed into the ground exactly where he had landed. Without stopping, the man charged forward with a vicious right uppercut, followed by a left jab and then the same crater-making downward right swing from before. Ichigo quickly disengaged and readied himself.

"GETSUGA TENSHO!!"

A veritable wall of blue extended far beyond the blade and collided with the impassive captain, throwing up a huge dust cloud in the process. Ichigo grunted in satisfaction as he waited for the dust to settle. He had definitely gotten in a hit. A sudden breeze blew the dust away revealing, to Ichigo's dismay, that the man was completely unharmed by the devastating attack. The captain shook his head, and then pounded his right fist into his left hand.

" 'Come on, Kurosaki,' " Enishi translated. " 'You can do better than that. Release your full power so I can prove to you once and for all that you are no match for me.' "

Ichigo narrowed his eyes. "You asked for it. Bankai!" An explosion of reiatsu engulfed the temperamental shinigami and quickly obscured all sight of him. When it cleared, Ichigo stood in his black robes and was pointing his nodachi at the silent captain. "Tensa Zangetsu."

Not pausing for a response, Ichigo raced forward at a blinding speed that surprised Sayu from afar and delivered a powerful slash that created a crater even though Kuromaru blocked the blow with no effort. Rejuvenated, he attempted to barrage the captain with blows in order to injure him. It backfired when the captain grabbed the blade and swung him into a building with a resounding crash. Ichigo had time to shake his head before he saw the captain directly in front of him with his right fist drawn back, and barely enough time to leap out of the way. **SHONK!!** A massive diagonal slice appeared in the building as Ichigo avoided the blow by millimeters and gathered himself again after retreating a distance.

_What the fuck? He _cut_ a building with a punch?!_

Ichigo had little time to ponder the impossibilities of such an event as the captain grabbed him from behind and smashed him through another building before flinging him into a third. Ichigo snarled and reoriented himself before putting his left hand up to his face and forming his mask. **"YOU ASKED FOR THIS!!"**

In his blind rage, he charged forward even faster than before and this time forced the captain to actively defend against the blows. One such blow cut his right hand completely off, a moment that lingered in the minds of everyone present. The captain didn't stop. With his left hand, he grabbed the blade and held it while he stuck the stump of his right arm in Ichigo's face with a rapidly growing ball of black energy. The blast was tremendous, a decent signal flare to alert the others of this new change in the battle.

***

"Hmm, I'm impressed. He forced the captain to use energy attacks already."

"Well of course he'd impress _you_."

"And what is that supposed to mean?!" Raiden demanded.

Sayu took Raiden's looming shadow as the cue to run away, far away.

"Hey! Get back here!"

The others present watched while thinking, _Talk about dysfunctional…_

***

The smoke cleared to reveal Ichigo sporting a massive burn across his chest and the top half of his mask. The captain was merely screwing on his severed right hand before approaching. He stopped directly in front of Ichigo and unleashed his torrential spiritual pressure.

"Gah-!" _What the hell? This… can't be his… Damn it! He's way beyond my league!_

_**Feh, having trouble king?**_

Ichigo's eyes shot open. It couldn't be! Not here, not now!

_**Jeez, I gotta save yer sorry ass so I can stay alive, ya know that? Here's how ya beat someone like this!**_

_N-no! Stop! Damn it-_"Gyraaaaugh!" Ichigo clawed at his chest as white-hot pain exploded from the core of his being, followed by a sticky white substance that erupted from every orifice and gave him a slick coating before solidifying into a smooth skin and repairing his mask. Pure black reiatsu swirled around him before abruptly blasting skyward and forcing even Kuromaru back from the shockwave.

***

The black column of energy was the first warning that the battle from afar had taken a turn for the worse. The second warning was the massive compressional shockwave that forced Urahara, a critically wounded Yoruichi, and Tessai to form Kido barriers to guard everyone else. The third warning was the sight of Ichigo becoming engulfed in his black reiatsu. Predictably, Rukia was the first to react.

"W-what's that? What's happening to Ichigo?!" Renji and Orihime had similar reactions. Uryu, Chad and Hitsugaya turned questioningly to Urahara, who looked away.

"I'm afraid that I cannot answer your questions. I have no idea why Kurosaki-san has become a hollow. I would imagine that you would be better off asking Namikawa-san or Takahashi-san."

Everyone heard that and turned to Raiden, who didn't look away from Ichigo as he answered.

"It would appear that because of your meddling, Urahara, Kurosaki has developed an inner hollow. I would surmise that since our captain released his energy, the hollow took advantage of Kurosaki's moment of weakness to take over his body. Beyond this, I cannot say. Only Enishi and the captain would know the technical terms. It is safe to say, however, that Kurosaki is beyond your aid."

"Ichigo…" Rukia whimpered.

"How would you know this?!" Renji demanded, trying to stall Rukia's inevitable breakdown. Raiden turned to look at him.

"Trust me when I say this, Abarai-fukutaicho, I speak from personal experience. Only Kurosaki's strength or my captain's mercy will allow him to return. If neither prove sufficient, consider him gone forever."

Those words proved too much for Rukia, who burst into tears and buried her face against Renji's chest for comfort.

***

The billowing energies finally calmed and revealed the hollow Ichigo, complete with mask, claws, tail and nodachi. The creature cracked a grin

**"Heh, now watch, King. This is how you take out the trash!"**

The hollow charged at the captain and delivered a crushing overhand swing, forcing said captain to draw his zanpaku-to. He blocked and countered before reaching out with his left hand to grab the hollow by the back of the neck. Then he pulled the hollow in front of himself and blew him away at point-blank range with a black cero. The hollow picked himself up and cracked his neck.

**"Heh, you really are strong. I guess I shouldn't be blaming the king. Oh well! Let's kick this up a notch!"**

The captain's blade began to glow and then lengthen. When the glow faded, the blade was a massive broadsword with four diamonds encrusting the join between the hilt and the blade. He angled it at the hollow, who didn't need Enishi to translate this.

_Yes, let's…_


	6. Chapter 5

**Okay, now I'm begging you. Please review! I must know what you think of it!**

Chapter Five: Up a notch

The battle (if you could call it that) was truly gargantuan. A berserker hollow that possessed enough energy to obliterate the town, and an ever-silent colossus of power that was _still_ unscathed from a near thirty minutes of non-stop battle with said hollow, engaged in blows that sent out shockwaves from their collisions. The hollow was slightly frustrated, but still very happy that it finally had a decent rival.

**"Ha ha ha ha! Oh yeah, this is the best, eh king?! Finally, someone I can go all out on and enjoy a fight with!"**

_I swear that you sound like that bastard Kenpachi-_

**"Ha! And you run away from that weakling! At least live up to the power you have and use it right, like this!"**

The hollow released yet another massive canyon-creating energy blast at Kuromaru as he swung the black nodachi. Two near-simultaneous explosions rocked the town as the captain deflected the blast and answered the swing with a full power _one-handed_ blow of his own. Both he and the hollow were blown back from the recoil, for the umpteenth time.

**"Tch, yer really getting annoying, ya know that?"** the hollow grumbled as he rubbed a large bruise that he had somehow acquired in the exchange.

The captain looked disdainfully at the spiderweb of cracks in his right shoulder plate, and then angled his blade once more as a visible white aura built up around it. Seeing this, the hollow grinned.

**"So that's how it is, eh? Works for me!"**

The hollow poured his corrupted reiatsu into the blade until it exploded outward.

_Hey! That's my move!_

**"Don't see yer name on it, king! Besides, you copied my move of spinning the blade by the wrap, so we're even!"**

The hollow charged forward and delivered a sideways slash just as the captain brought down the broadsword with a one-handed blow. The blast was tremendous. White and black flares of energy exploded from the contact point. Unfortunately, the black column shot out directly at Urahara and company…

***

"Oh fuck me! Everyone get behind us!" Yoruichi swore as she, Tessai and Urahara put up their strongest shields to guard the others. Ignoring the fact that such a strain would in all likelihood cripple her for life, she poured her reiatsu out to neutralize the destructive energy that slipped between Urahara's blood mist shield and Tessai's Danku. When it finally died down, she collapsed as the out-of-control energy of her Shunko tore at her muscles and left her little ability to stand. The last words she heard were "You did well, Yoruichi-"

***

The wounded hollow clutched its left arm, severed completely at the shoulder.

**"Gyargh! Augh! Damn it!"** he cursed. **"How are you so fucking strong?!"**

The captain, _still_ unharmed, didn't reply.

**"Answer me dipshit!"**

Instead of a verbal reply, Kuromaru simply performed a series of hand seals before ramming his gauntleted right hand against the hollow's masked forehead.

**"What the fuaaaaaaaarrrrrgh!"** There was a glowing seal where Kuromaru had placed his hand, and it was apparently causing the hollow several problems. The hollow could feel the power draining away, sealing itself into whatever the hell that conceited bastard planted on his face. And as it did, he could feel Ichigos' struggles to regain control becoming more violent. With a roar of rage, he summoned as much reiatsu as he could and blew it throughout his body, wrecking the seal in the process. He took a deep breath, and grinned toothily at the captain.

**"Nice try fucker, but it didn't work!"**

"You know," Enishi put in. "you are only making this much more difficult than it needs to be, hollow. We came here only to send a message-"

**"Well screw yer damn message! Here's my answer!"** The hollow yelled as he raised a regenerated left arm and formed a massive cero. Before he could fire it however, Ichigo gained control of a hand and proceeded to try and tear the mask off. Caught by surprise, the hollow accidentally slammed the cero into himself. **"Agh! What the fuck are you doing king?!"** he cried as he tried to rip the rebellious right arm off of his mask.

_Go back to wherever you came from! This is my fight! Stop interfering!_

**"Are you insane?! I can win this for us if you let me! Stop it! NOOO!! GYAA**AARGH!"

The moment the mask came off, Ichigos' tail, clawed hands and feet shattered to be replaced by his normal body. This was accompanied by a tower of bluish white reiatsu-

***

"Would you look at that, Kuchiki Rukia. Your substitute apparently does have enough strength to throw off his hollow. And stop that infernal crying. It's disgusting, not befitting of a proper shinigami," Raiden growled.

"Aww, I didn't know that you cared about her," Sayu commented teasingly.

"That's it! You're dead!" Raiden howled, releasing his axe and charging after his provocative sister while trying to burn her.

Renji, Rukia, Orihime, Chad and Uryu breathed a collective sigh of relief as they saw _their_ Ichigo once again, Rukia wiping tears away as she did so.

***

Ichigo took a deep breath and then brought up his blade, or tried to. He collapsed flat on his face.

"Damn you hollow…"

"Tsk tsk. This is why you are not strong enough," Enishi admonished while the captain looked on. "You have a hollow who can grant you power, and yet you fight him. You are divided against yourself rather than united in one purpose. As such, you cannot grasp your full power, not while you are in constant conflict with yourself."

"What do you know?! And why should I trust a hollow?!" Ichigo shot back, still prone and unable to move.

"Why not, if he can offer you something to help you? Moreover, why not, if he is a part of yourself?! Answer me this, Kurosaki: is there anything that you will not do to protect your friends? Is there any rule you will not break? Is there any alliance you won't strike if it helps you protect those whom you care for? HOW DEDICATED ARE YOU?!" Enishi roared.

Ichigo was struck dumb. He had no immediate answer. That fact irked him to no end. Enishi nodded. "Raiden, Sayu, quit it. We're done here." A garganta opened on its own, and closed behind the two retreating figures leaving a silent Ichigo to his own thoughts as he slipped into unconsciousness.

***

Sayu pulled up short and purposely tripped Raiden, sending him straight into the garganta in front of them. "I'll get you for this!" he howled as the portal closed on him. Sayu grinned behind her helmet as she opened her own portal and disappeared from Karakura.

***

Renji and Rukia wasted no time in retrieving the fallen substitute shinigami and bringing him to Urahara's shop. Renji rubbed his bruised left eye, courtesy of Sayu, as he retrieved various jars and vials at Uraharas' direction. Predictably, Orihime went straight to work healing Ichigo first. She started on Uryu next and was working on regenerating Soifon's arm when Ichigo finally woke up.

"Ugh…wha? Where-"

"You stupid idiotic bastard!" Rukia screamed practically in his ear as she clubbed him with her zanpaku-to, sheathed as it were. "What the fuck were you thinking?! I told you that those guys worked us all over and then you decided to challenge their captain, of all people!" she went on as Ichigo massaged his aching temples and tried to move away to let his eardrums recover.

"Ow…what was that for?!"

"That," Renji replied as he entered, trailing Urahara. "was for challenging ex-taicho Kuromaru, and for letting your hollow take you over. I'd give you a good swat myself, but I'm kinda loaded down here by bucket hat's things."

"Loaded down" might have been somewhat of an understatement. Renji was somehow balancing a tower of things three feet higher than his head. That he managed to set it down without needing Urahara's help was a miracle.

"Are you awake, Kurosaki?" a familiar apathetic white-haired midget called from the doorway.

"Uh, yeah. But I have a killer headache, no thanks to Rukia."

"I'm sure we can sympathize," was the acidic response. "Now what was the whole affair about?"

"What do you mean, Toshiro?"

"Kurosaki, my fukutaicho is currently in critical condition because of this mess, which is centered around you. You would be well advised not to antagonize me."

"Chill out, jeez. The only one who talked was that other midget" A vein popped on Hitsugaya's and Rukia's foreheads. "and what he did was ask me something about how dedicated I am to protecting my friends. He…told me that I had no hope of that if I was fighting myself."

"Your hollow." Hitsugaya stated. Rukia's demeanor abruptly changed from anger to something else that Ichigo couldn't quite describe. She turned away from him and he looked at Renji, who sighed.

"Ichigo, I'll tell you later. Right now, answer Hitsugaya-taicho."

Ichigo resigned himself and turned back. "Yeah, my hollow."

Hitsugaya was silent, and so Ichigo took the chance to ask another question.

"Where's Yoruichi-san?"

Urahara looked away pointedly while Hitsugaya, Renji and Orihime assumed guarded expressions. Uryu took the liberty to answer. "She's critically injured, again. During the battle between your hollow and that captain Kuromaru, she overexerted herself trying to protect all of us from the energy of your last exchange with him. Her muscles have been shredded, and there's an even chance of her dying. Orihime doesn't have enough energy to heal her yet, so Tessai-san is trying to keep her in stasis along with Rangiku-san until she can heal them."

That hit Ichigo like a slap in the face. Another person, injured because of his stupidity and weakness. Even the training from Shinji hadn't been enough. "What's the use…" he muttered.

"What?" Hitsugaya asked.

"Rukia's right. I am a stupid idiotic bastard, a _weak_ stupid idiotic bastard."

Renji clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, don't start that Ichigo! You're the strongest one here!"

"Yeah, Ichigo!" a familiar fight-loving voice called. "You just need to get your shit together, that's all!" Ikkaku continued as he walked into the now-crowded room, followed closely by Yumichika. "And if you can't, I'll beat on you until you do!"

Ichigo looked up and forced a grin at those words. Orihime finished healing Soifon, and was promptly grabbed by Hitsugaya and dragged out the door, presumably to Matsumoto.

***

Ichigo followed Renji to the back of the shop and closed the sliding door. Renji turned to face him.

"Ichigo, do you know why Ukitake-taicho doesn't have a fukutaicho?"

Ichigo slowly shook his head.

"He used to. The guy was Shiba Kaien-"

"Hey wait a minute! Shiba? As in Shiba Kukaku and Shiba Ganju?"

"Yep. He was the older brother, looked a lot like you in fact. Rukia was…somewhat taken by him."

"Uh…" This did sort of explain a few things about why Rukia acted the way she did around him. "What happened to him?"

"He was killed while hunting a hollow that killed his wife. The hollow absorbed him and took him over. Rukia was forced to kill him." And this explained everything else, such as why his inner hollow was such a sensitive topic for her now.

"Ichigo, if you ever do something stupid like that again, especially in front of Rukia, I will skin you alive. You don't have any idea how it was for her to watch essentially the same thing happen to you as with Kaien. One of the things that Kuchiki-taicho told me after you left, about why he tried to keep Rukia from a seated position, was that he didn't think she would be able to handle seeing friends struck down in front of her, let alone doing it herself. I don't ever want to see her suffer like that again."

Ichigo didn't reply. He was still lost in thought. Renji opened the door and turned for a last comment. "And by the way, don't die. Rukia won't take that any better than if you become a hollow."

***

Hitsugaya marched into the de facto communications room that Urahara had set up as the screen flickered and settled into an image of the captain's hall.

"Report." The captain-general ordered in a gravelly voice.

"Our forces were decimated. We were only spared by the fact that the intentions of former captains Kuromaru," A number of gasps interrupted him before the captain-general gestured for silence. "Takahashi Enishi, Hanabusa Sayu and Namikawa Raiden were not that of destruction. They apparently wanted to send Kurosaki Ichigo a message. The effective content was this: "You are not strong enough to protect your friends, yet." We engaged them until Kurosaki showed up and challenged Captain Kuromaru, who came at that point and fought him. In the middle of the battle, Kurosaki turned into a hollow many orders of magnitude beyond the power level of a Vasto Lorde-"

"What?!"

"How is that possible?"

"Heh, now I REALLY want a rematch with him!"

"Silence! Hitsugaya-taicho, are you certain of this?"

"I witnessed the battle myself. This hollow was able to force Kuromaru-taicho to release his Shikai, a feat only repeated by his three students and yourself, Soutaicho. Not only that, it required the use of a seal to restrict his power to allow Kurosaki to regain control of his body."

"...hmm, Kurotsuchi-taicho, do you have a theory?"

The freakish captain stepped forward. "Hai. Based on the surveillance of the battle in question, information that Kuchiki-taicho" Byakuya inclined his head. "provided me about his own personal encounter, and our current knowledge of hollows, I believe that Kurosaki Ichigo has an inner hollow-"

"I could have told you that myself," Hitsugaya muttered. Kurotsuchi glared at him.

"As I was saying, I believe that Kurosaki Ichigo has developed an inner hollow. How this came to be, I have no idea."

"Namikawa-taicho said that this was caused by Urahara's meddling. Perhaps we should ask him-"

"Ask me what?" Urahara called from the doorway. "Oh, hello Soutaicho."

"Urahara..." the captain ground out. "explain how the shinigami substitute has an inner hollow."

Urahara scratched his head, forgetting that he was still wearing his hat. "Ah, well...when I was helping Kurosaki-san regain his shinigami powers after his encounter with Kuchiki-taicho, I destroyed his spirit chain completely" he was interrupted by gasps and cries of outrage. "-and forced him to either become a shinigami, or become a hollow. His mask began forming before he could fly apart and truly transform into a hollow, but it stopped short after that. He gained his powers and emerged with his mask. Nothing else signified anything to do with his hollow transformation."

"Urahara Kisuke…" the captain-general rumbled. "You do realize that using anyone like that to test a hypothesis goes against many moral restrictions that are set in place to prevent such treatment as what resulted a century and a half ago. By all rights, you should be arrested for such a flagrant violation. However, your efforts did benefit Soul Society. We have gained several powerful allies, and your meddling may have been one of the reasons for Kurosaki's great power. Although we are grateful, do not do this again. And I will hold you responsible for anything that goes wrong with Kurosaki."

Urahara bowed his head while the old captain turned back to Hitsugaya. "I presume that is all?"

"Hai."

"This is an unexpected development, but our primary concern at the moment is defeating Aizen. After that, we can turn our attention to our wayward captains.

***

And speaking of wayward captains…

"So, captain, how long do you think it will take for our friend to come around?"

"…"

"Sooo, basically anywhere from now up to the winter, when Aizen launches his attack."

"Aww, nothing to do right now, except watch Raiden go nuts! Tehe!"

"Hey Sayu, you do realize that he will get out of your kido trap sooner or later, and then you'll be in for it."

CHEUOUIE! KRAK! "ALRIGHT! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, BITCH?!"

"And what did I tell you?" Enishi muttered as Sayu squealed in fright and disappeared, while Raiden blew into and out of the room searching for his bane of a sister. Kuromaru's fingers twitched in irritation, the only sign that this idiocy had any effect on him.


	7. Chapter 6

**Finally some reviews! Thanks! I hope more of you who read this will tell me what you think!**

Chapter Six: We meet again

Ichigo lay face up on his bed as he thought about the events of the night before.

_Flashback_

_"Answer me this, Kurosaki: is there anything that you will not do to protect your friends? Is there any rule you will not break? Is there any alliance you won't strike if it helps you protect those whom you care for? HOW DEDICATED ARE YOU?!" Enishi roared._

_Flashback end_

"Any alliance that I won't strike…" he muttered. Making an alliance with the people who served him his ass on a silver plate was generally not regarded as the smartest thing in the world. But if they were offering to help…if he was reading this right, that was exactly what Enishi had been offering…_if_ they were, he would be a moron not to accept their help, just like he would have been stupid not to take Shinji's little training course. But still…they had hurt his friends.

_Flashback_

_"Our captain wishes you to know that you are not nearly strong enough to protect your friends from the likes of Aizen."_

_"You have a hollow who can grant you power, and yet you fight him. You are divided against yourself rather than united in one purpose. As such, you cannot grasp your full power, not while you are in constant conflict with yourself."_

_Flashback end_

"Damn it!" he pounded his bed, though careful not to wake Rukia up from his closet. _I'm just not strong enough! Even with Shinji's help, I couldn't do a thing to protect my friends even if they were in serious trouble._ He sighed, and then grasped his shinigami badge. Maybe he should talk to Urahara.

***

"Well, this is a surprise, Kurosaki-san," Urahara said as he opened the front door to let Ichigo in. "What can I do for you?"

"…Urahara, do you know where those guys are?"

_Ahh, I thought this would be it,_ Urahara thought to himself. "Who?"

"Those former captains, uh…"

"Ah. Well, why would you wish to find them? If it is simply to exact revenge on our behalf, one, it would be futile for you. Two, while you were busy talking to Abarai-san in my back room the night before, all of us recapped the events and decided that there was no point in blaming you. It was simply your nature. None of us hold you responsible, Kurosaki-san."

"I'm not going to them to try and kill them. I want to see if they can help me get stronger."

"And why would you assume that I would know where they are?"

"Because you seem to know almost everything."

_Well, there's no denying that I've always seemed omniscient to everyone,_ Urahara admitted to himself. "They are on the far outskirts of the town, to the south of your battle site with Kuromaru-taicho."

"Thanks," Ichigo said as he hoisted Zangetsu onto his back. "And please don't tell anyone."

"I should hope that you understand that if Soul Society requests your whereabouts, I am obligated to tell them, Kurosaki-san."

"…alright, then could you please not tell my friends?"

"I will try."

"Thanks again," Ichigo called as he turned and headed out at top speed.

_Now,_ Urahara thought. _Should I put on the earplugs now, or do it before I open my front door? Hmm, I'd better do it now. They might just bust in before I can let them in myself._

***

Rukia was rudely awakened by her Soul Pager alerting her to a hollow.

"Ichigo, get yourself out of bed!" she called as she climbed out of his closet. "Hey, wake up! WAKE UP YOU IMBECILE!" she yelled as she grabbed one side of his bed and heaved it up, dumping his body out onto the floor. "Hey Ichigo…Ichigo?" She pried apart his eyelids and saw that they were unfocused. He hadn't responded to anything she did. Then she noticed that his hand had a death grip on his badge. She flipped open her phone.

"Yeah Rukia, what's up?"

"Renji, have you seen Ichigo anywhere?"

"Huh? No I haven't seen the idiot. Why?"

"Well he wasn't here when I woke up. He left his body behind."

"Damn it! Hitsugaya-taicho won't be happy about this."

And he wasn't.

"Kurosaki disappeared?"

"Hai. Neither one of us can find him, and we've been looking since this morning."

Hitsugaya grabbed his forehead in frustration. "Keep looking Abarai-fukutaicho. Report back if you find him."

"Hai."

Growling various curses under his breath, he contacted the captain-general.

"Soutaicho, we have a problem…"

***

Urahara was surprised to see that Renji and Rukia had waited for him to get up and open the door. Given Ichigo's…_unique_ situation as far as they were concerned, he had expected to have to pay for a new door when he woke up.

"Ah, Kuchiki-san, Abarai-san, what can I do for you?"

"Do you know where Ichigo is?"

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you that, Kuchiki-san."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do I know where he is? Yes. Can I tell you? No. I am obligated to honor a customer's wishes, and he requested that I keep his whereabouts secret."

Renji had ducked out right after "Kuchiki-san," and so avoided having to listen to Rukia's increasingly hysterical pleas while he informed an unhappy Hitsugaya of this latest development.

"Hn, so Urahara is in on this?"

"OH COME ON!" Rukia exploded from inside the shop. "HE'S MY FRIEND!"

"Maa maa Kuchiki-san! I'm sorry, but those are his wishes!"

"That's a yes," Renji answered lamely.

Renji would later swear that he heard growling on the other end, something about "I'm going to kill that strawberry moron."

***

Meanwhile, Ichigo finally got a handle on the precise location of the rogue captains and was now trying to find the goddamn door. Seriously, what was up with these guys?! He knew exactly where they were, and he still couldn't talk to them because there was no entrance! He had to tell himself numerous times not to use a Getsuga Tensho out of frustration, because the last time he had tried, the building reflected the attack right back at him and almost killed him. Although, it had gotten a certain sadistic fight-lover's attention.

***

"Well, would you look at that, Enishi. Kurosaki came looking for us already, alone."

Enishi wandered over to a window nearby, and merely nodded impassively.

"Hey Sayu! Sayu? Where is she?"

"You bound and gagged her in a closet before setting it on fire, Raiden."

"Ooh, right."

"And now she's pissed."

"Oh, shit…"

"WHERE ARE YOU YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH? LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO MY ROBES!"

"That's what you get for your lack of thought. You also burned the rope that you tied her with. Nice going, smart one."

Raiden didn't hear the last bit, because he had raced toward the other door and out of the room. Sayu entered in a rage.

"Where is he?!"

Enishi merely pointed to the door and Sayu raced through it. Seconds later, a series of screams and sobs echoed throughout the building along with many violent sounds and manic laughter.

"And now the _mature_ one of us will welcome our guest…" Enishi muttered as he walked down to the entrance, ignoring the torture that he had set in motion.

***

"EEYAHHHOWWWWW!"

"What the hell was that?!" Ichigo wondered after his ears stopped ringing.

"You don't want to know, trust me, Kurosaki." Enishi called from his position against the entrance way, the now-_unlocked_ front doors. "We've been expecting you. Follow me." Ichigo followed the ice user while wondering vaguely whether an affinity for ice meant a deficiency in height. As they descended below ground level, odd tortured sounds echoed from above throughout the hallways.

"What is-"

"Just don't ask. You're better off not knowing."

Ichigo decided not to press the issue and continued in silence. They reached a large room and found Kuromaru emerging from a garganta, his head inclined questioningly.

"They're at it again, but they should be down here soon-"

The ceiling of the massive vaulted chamber shattered and two small armored figures plummeted, landing right between Kuromaru, and Ichigo and Enishi.

Raiden groaned from underneath Sayu, and raised his head.

"So…we meet again, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Sayu sighed and casually slammed Raiden's helmeted head back into the ground.

"Enough with the clichés already!"

Enishi and Kuromaru simultaneously grabbed their foreheads. This was going to be a loooong month…


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: There's no "nice" in "ice"

Urahara dodged yet another massive wave of ice cast by a livid Kuchiki midget.

"WHERE IS HE?!?!"

"I'm sorry Kuchiki-san, but-whoops! Kurosaki-san requested that I keep his whereabouts a secret!"

"Kuchiki, put that away," Hitsugaya ordered as he entered the room, trailing Matsumoto. "Urahara Kisuke, I request that you tell me Kurosaki Ichigo's location, now!" He emphasized his demand by releasing his Shikai.

Urahara inclined his head. "Are you asking as his friend, or as an agent of Soul Society?"

"As an agent of Soul Society."

"I believe that Kurosaki-san has headed toward the location of the four banished captains. They are located south of his battlefield with Kuromaru-taicho-" Before he had finished, Rukia and Renji had already disappeared, closely followed by Uryu and Chad.

"Urahara…" Hitsugaya began dangerously. "did you tell him they were there?"

"Kurosaki-san requested their whereabouts-"

"And you sent him just like that?! Did it ever occur to you that their intentions might be less than favorable to Soul Society, or that we are dealing with beings of far greater power than Aizen's Espada?!"

"Actually Hitsugaya-san, they have no intention of hurting him, yet. The whole affair of the night before was merely an overblown offer to help him get stronger."

"How so?! What kind of offer would involve severely injuring all of us?!"

"Kurosaki-san has little regard for his personal safety, but he will do anything to protect his friends. In their place, I would have done the same kind of approach, though I would have tried to make it less violent."

"And how does that fit in?"

"It is simple. If you threaten Kurosaki-san's friends, he will be more willing to become stronger to protect them all. You would never garner the same effect if you only threatened him personally."

Hitsugaya took a deep breath to calm down, and then activated his Soul Pager.

"Abarai, Kuchiki, report in when you find him."

"Hai."

Hitsugaya nodded and closed the phone. And then he turned back to Urahara.

"I'm warning you Urahara. If anything happens to him because of your actions, you will be held responsible."

_Yeesh, I'll need a list to remember all the things that I'm being held responsible for._

***

Ichigo lay flat on his back with his mask positioned precisely over his Hakusui Soul Booster with Kuromaru's broadsword positioned point down directly above. He tried dimly to remember how it came to this.

_Flashback_

_Ignoring the two-person circus that was Raiden and Sayu, Ichigo, Enishi and Kuromaru walked off while Enishi explained what they would do._

_"You came here to become stronger at any cost, correct?"_

_"Yeah. So what now? Do I fight you guys?"_

_"Heh, impatient aren't we? That comes later, after you've had individual training with each of us."_

_"So who am I paired up with first?"_

_"Ah, no one. We haven't even begun to start you tapping into your full power."_

_"So how do we do that?"_

_"Let me start at the beginning. You were taught to suppress your hollow. That much is obvious. Who taught you?"_

_"Shinji."_

_"Hirako Shinji? Hm, tell me, is there a short tempered girl who loves to whack him?"_

_"You mean Hiyori?"_

_"Ah, inseparable as always. Who else?"_

_"I think their names were Kensei, Rose, Love, Mashiro, Hachi, and a pervert named Lisa."_

_"Hm, interesting."_

_"What? Do you know them?"_

_"Oh yes. Kensei was my old vice captain. Love served under Raiden, and Shinji was Sayu's lieutentant. Looks like there are some interesting times ahead. Anyway, you were taught to suppress your hollow. I suppose it is natural to do that. However, your hollow is a part of yourself. If you suppress it, you are sealing a significant bit of your power away. You first need to learn to work together with your hollow._

_"Now, one of the things that we know is typical of you is that you learn best while under pressure, so we will be putting you into another relative life-or-death situation. Same old, same old. No problem for you, I'm sure." Ichigo disagreed with that. He'd had his fill of life-or-death situations._

_"What will I have to do?"_

_"It's simple: forge a working alliance with your hollow within the time limit, or you die."_

_Ichigo swallowed, second thoughts beginning to form, before he remembered 'HOW DEDICATED ARE YOU?!'_

_"Alright, I'll do it."_

_Flashback end_

Ichigo sighed. Somehow, he knew he was going to regret this in the future.

Enishi finalized the positioning of the mask and then stepped away as Kuromaru tightened his grip on his blade.

"Ready, Kurosaki?"

"…no."

"Well that's generally how it was for us. Still, you just have to deal with it. Besides, you have it easy. Our captain didn't have anyone to help him when he did this. He had to stab himself."

Ichigo winced, his imagination giving mental images to the dialogue.

"Sounds painful doesn't it? Stabbing yourself with a piece of your own soul hurts more than someone else doing it for you, although it did seem to work out better…hey captain? How about we use Zangetsu instead?"

Ichigo stiffened. _Oh no, he's not serious?!_

Apparently he was, because in the space of two seconds, the broadsword seemed to morph into Ichigo's six foot long cleaver. Enishi glanced downward and took slight pleasure in Ichigo's horrified expression.

"Come now, Kurosaki, didn't you say that you'd do anything it took to become stronger?"

Ichigo closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as Enishi reset the mask perfectly. "Just get it over with…"

"If you insist. On three…one-"

**SCHLUK!**

"…two three."

"HOUAK!" Ichigo gurgled as the massive blade sunk into his chest, perfectly splitting his mask and rupturing his Soul Booster-

***

Rukia could somehow feel, despite many reiatsu suppression barriers and nullification fields, Ichigo's presence suddenly becoming weaker.

"Ichigo? Ichigo?!" She sped up even faster, leaving a protesting and struggling Renji trying to keep up.

_Ichigo, what happened to you? Where are you?!_ she thought in a panic, desperately hoping that she wasn't too late.

***

Enishi looked up suddenly, and smiled inside his helmet.

"Captain?"

Kuromaru nodded as well.

"Heh, so his friends did come. This should be entertaining."

_**YOU MAY TAKE PLEASURE IN THIS, BUT I STILL HAVE OTHER MATTERS TO ATTEND TO.**_

"I understand, captain," Enishi nodded as he translated his captain's gestures in his head. Kuromaru turned, opened another garganta, and disappeared into it. Enishi sighed, walked over to Raiden and Sayu, who were _still_ fighting, grabbed them, and flung them toward a door at the far end of the room. Maybe it was because of Raiden flailing against it, but the door miraculously slammed shut behind the two. _And now for the piece de resistance_ Enishi thought as he made preparations, and then waited for Ichigo's friends to arrive.

***

Ichigo opened his eyes after the sudden absence of chest pain and found himself on the familiar sideways skyscraper of his inner world, with his hollow crushed underneath a gigantic block of concrete that looked like it was taken from the sidewalk at the far end of the skyscraper.

_What the hell is this?! I knew Shinji said to force him to the core of my being, but crushing him like this?_

Ichigo wasted little time in grabbing the impossibly heavy block and trying to push it off. When he did, he was surprised to find his hollow sleeping, _sleeping,_ underneath the massive weight. Not only that, there was the familiar white Zangetsu lying next to him, chipped in some places. A closer look at the hollow revealed why. Battered and cracked chains were bound to his wrists and ankles. The hollow had been using his own power to try and free himself. Ichigo tentatively clasped the regular Zangetsu strapped to his back, and then made his decision. He took it and hacked apart the binds around the hollow's wrists and ankles. The hollow woke up and saw Ichigo standing in front of him with the massive cleaver drawn in front of himself.

**"What the hell do you want, king? Did you come to kill me once and for all?"**

Ichigo was taken aback. "Uh, no…I was just-"

**"Trying to have some fun with me then?"**

"No! I came to set you free!"

**"Huh? What?"** The hollow looked at Ichigo disbelievingly, then at his wrists, and then he grinned. **"Heh, thanks king-"** Ichigo barely had time to bring his blade up to parry the blow. **"-for making it easier to kill you!"**

***

Rukia blazed past the front doors, completely disregarding security procedures that mandated slow and careful checks of the surroundings. She didn't have time for slow and careful. She homed in inexorably on Ichigo's diminishing spiritual pressure, praying that he wasn't…she couldn't bring herself to think the word "dead." Renji, Chad and Uryu reached the front doors just as Rukia burst into the massive antechamber…and stopped dead in her tracks. Enishi Takahashi sat on top of Ichigo's prone, unmoving form, hand wrapped around the hilt of Zangetsu, currently embedded in his chest. The others caught up to her and likewise halted at the sight. Enishi stood up and let go of the massive blade.

"Ah, you've come, but you are too late to help. Kurosaki Ichigo is…beyond aid at the moment," Enishi smiled cruelly at the double meaning, not that the others could see it.

Rukia stood frozen, completely stiff and unmoving. Renji wondered whether she was having a breakdown. Chad activated his arm while Uryu materialized his bow and readied a volley. Renji made no move to draw as he awaited Rukia's reaction. With a feral howl of rage and grief, Rukia released her zanpaku-to and unleashed a gigantic Hakuren at the shortest of the rogue captains. Enishi split the entire attack down the middle, before backhanding Chad's energy blast away and dodging every one of Uryu's arrows.

"You know, your attacks may be impressive, but all the rage in the world cannot help your friend at this point," Enishi taunted. Renji growled and released his blade to join the fray.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Communications Breakdown

Ichigo dodged yet another swing from his hollow, retreating desperately in an attempt to keep from getting injured.

"Hey come on! I don't want to fight! I just came here to talk!"

**"And tell me why the fuck I should believe that?!"** the hollow retorted as another wild swing slammed into the side of the building.

"I'm serious! I just want to talk-"

**"Oh you're 'serious,' just like you were serious when you crushed me under your will and locked me down here?!"**

"When I _what_?!"

The hollow snorted derisively. **"That huge ass block that you pushed off of me was a piece of your will, just like the sidewalk panels behind you! Your will is the foundation of this world! And you smothered me under a **_**piece**_** of it, not to mention that you locked me down here and set the old man as my jailer!"**

"Seriously, I didn't know that-"

**"-that you were doing this to me? Well what if you knew?! Would you still have left it until that other ice midget told you to try and work together with me?! Give me one reason why I should trust you, king! One good reason!!"**

Ichigo was silent for a few seconds as he dodged and parried while trying to come up with a reason.

"...because you and I are one person?"

**"THAT'S WHAT I TRIED TO GET ACROSS FROM THE BEGINNING!"** the hollow howled, and he renewed his assault with fresh rage. **"I said that if you die, so do I, and so I can't allow you to die!"**

"Well didn't you say that you just wanted all the power? What if we shared it?"

The hollow stopped dead midswing in surprise. **"Sharing the power together...what a fucking ridiculous idea! Why the hell should we share it?! This world can only have one king!"**

"Well if we pool our strengths together, we can be stronger than if we go individually-"

**"You sound like a kumbayah freak! "Let's all work together," "United we stand, divided we fall," that shit is so corny! I don't see any reason that I should share power with a king who doesn't know how to use it right! If you can't do it, I will!"**

Ichigo took a deep breath. "Alright, if I beat you again to prove myself to you, will you work with me then?"

The hollow considered, and then grinned. **"Well there's the thing. Ya gotta beat me first, king!"**

***

Hitsugaya drummed his fingers on the roof of Orihime's room impatiently. He had expected the others to have found that strawberry idiot already, since their spiritual pressures had disappeared abruptly, too abruptly for them to have been killed. They had to have crossed a barrier of some sort, and that barrier was likely to have been set up by the rogue captains. He grumbled as he tried for the sixteenth time to contact them, and got nothing but static on his Soul Pager. He decided that he'd waited long enough and contacted the Twelfth Division.

"Hitsugaya-taicho, how may we assist you today?"

"I sent Abarai-fukutaicho and Kuchiki Rukia to sector 5830 of Karakura, and I have heard nothing from them since. I am requesting that you attempt, to the best of your abilities, to trace them and determine their situation, and if necessary, contact the Soutaicho. I have been unable to reach them with my Soul Pager."

"H-hai." Hitsugaya waited...and waited. Finally, "I apologize, Hitsugaya-taicho, but we have been unable to confirm their situation. Something is blocking our scanners, and we cannot get a clear picture of the areaxxxx"

"Contact Soifon-taicho and have her come here to reinforce. Have her bring the elite defense squad. Do you understand?"

"xxxxxxxx-gaya-taichoxxxxxxxxxxxx-amn it! Commuxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-oken downxxxxxxxx"

"Damn it!" the diminutive captain swore as he closed the phone. Of all the times for the network to go off line, it had to be now! "Matsumoto, get Madarame and Ayasegawa. We are going to look for the others."

Despite the incredibly loud giggle fest inside Orihime's apartment (Do. Not. Ask!), Matsumoto still heard him and did as he asked. Soon, the four shinigami were headed at top speed to sector 5830.

***

_Maybe pissing them off wasn't such a good idea, _Enishi thought wryly as another one of Renji's attacks missed him and destroyed yet another one of the building support pillars. _Talk about 'bringing down the house__.'_

"You bastard!" Renji hissed. "How could you do this to Ichigo? And to Rukia?!"

"Hey, don't just blame me. Kurosaki asked for it," Enishi offered without clarification.

"No he didn't! He didn't ask to get killed!"

"True, he didn't, but…"

"Was this the final reason for your little stunt the other night?!" Uryu demanded as he attempted to hit Enishi, leaving many cross-shaped arrows sticking from the ground when he missed, and giving the impression of a graveyard.

" "Final reason?" There is no such thing as a final reason. All things have a larger motive driving them-"

"I don't need your lectures!"

Rukia was past the uncontrollable rage, and now at the point of uncontrollable sobbing. Had she had the mind to check on Ichigo, she would have noticed that his heart was still beating and his spiritual pressure was still fairly solid, although considerably weaker than was normal. However, she was too blinded by emotion to think about that point, not to mention _literally_ blinded by tears, so her wildly flailing attacks merely caused more and more damage to the foundations of the building. Enishi decided that he had to intervene. He rushed forward and backhanded Rukia's blade out of her hand. Coincidentally, it impaled Renji's shoulder with enough force to lift him off his feet and nail itself into the wall.

"Gah-!" Apparently, Rukia had been about to attack, because the pent-up energy still in the blade leaked profusely, turning to solid ice where it made contact with the air, and further immobilizing Renji as the ice spread down his right arm.

Enishi, meanwhile, had shoved Rukia directly into Chad's path. Chad was forced to deactivate his arm and catch her, lest he shatter her spine with an accidental attack. Enishi nerve-pinched him at the base of his neck, causing him to drop, paralyzed, but conscious.

Uryu ground his teeth as he tried on his own to extract retribution without much success. Chad was down. Rukia was a broken wreck, emotionally unstable. Renji…the only thing he could possibly do was swear, as he was currently doing, and _try_ to fire kido. And he was the only one capable of attacking, and to make it worse, he was a _ranged_ fighter! His specialty was long engagement from far away, and instead of that, he had chosen to involve himself up close and personal, where he was weak! _I wonder if Ryuuken had a point when he said I don't have talent-_

***

The captains were gathered for yet another crisis as Captain Kurotsuchi presented the situation.

"Our entire communications network has been taken offline. We have no reliable way of monitoring events in the real world. This was first brought to my division's attention while in communication with Hitsugaya-taicho. It would appear that the Dangai has become severely destabilized."

"What?!"

"What does that mean?"

"What could be causing this?!"

Kurotsuchi held up both hands in a quieting gesture. "If you'll permit me," he continued after the captain-general nodded. "I will explain.

"As you know, the Dangai serves as a barrier between Soul Society and the Real World to prevent the entrance of hollows and wayward spirits that have not been purified. However, we often have need to move between the realms, and so-"

"And so we use the Senkaimon," Soifon finished. "We all are aware of this, Kurotsuchi. Get to the point."

Kurotsuchi ground his teeth in frustration. "Yes, we use the Senkaimon. Now," he gestured and a floating schematic of the Senkaimon appeared. "the Senkaimon clears a pathway through the Dangai by an influx of energy. The more energy fed at once, the wider the generated pathway. The longer this flow is sustained, the longer the path can be, or the longer it exists. Now, am I correct to say that we all know what happens when the flow is cut off?"

"Ne, the walls crash?" Captain Kyouraku put in.

"Correct. Imagine if you will, an exceedingly powerful wind splits a sea, as one of the human legends claims. While the wind exists, the sea is parted. Remove the wind, and the water crashes together. In both the sea and in the Dangai, this creates disturbances. For this reason, all Senkaimon are widely isolated to prevent such disturbances from affecting each other. The slightest wavering while a path is being created could warp it, divert the energy and make either a random path to the real world, a looping path back to Soul Society, or a dead end pathway that entraps the travelers forever in the Dangai." Each possibility was illustrated by the holographic projector. "For obvious reasons, none of that is desirable."

"Kurotsuchi, if energy is used to create the path, then how is it that we cannot feel its presence during our travels?" Unohana queried.

"The Senkaimon is powered by reiatsu, but that energy is, how shall I put it, simplified, stripped of all impurities. Then it is merely diverted to another plane, creating a kind of peak in the dimensional fabric that parts the walls of Koryu. If we were to use the same method as the legend that I mentioned earlier, then we would be likely smashed into the Koryu and trapped forever, simply by being pushed by the required massive spiritual pressure.

"Now every Senkaimon passage that we create leaves disturbances in the Dangai, but these do not have the violence to disrupt communications to a great extent. That can only be done by either a massive instantaneous discharge of energy at one single point," Now a floating model of massive ripples traveling from one spot appeared. "or numerous simultaneous discharges at many points throughout causing many ripples throughout the vast entirety of the Dangai." The model was replaced by many ripple points on a single plane. "In this case, the monitoring devices that we have placed in the Dangai reported a discharge of reiatsu equal to the total reiatsu possessed by all shinigami of the Gotei Thirteen before we lost contact-"

"What?! That can't be!"

"No one has that much energy!"

"Hmm, remember that such a person _does _indeed exist," Captain Yamamoto reminded them. "former Captain Kuromaru."

"Indeed," Kurotsuchi continued. "However I merely said a discharge. This could simply be the work of a device, or a sufficiently powerful group."

"And who could possess such a device?"

Kurotsuchi inclined his head. "The most likely prospect would be my predecessor. There is an outside chance that the traitor, Aizen Sosuke, could also have such a device."

"Perhaps," Byakuya commented. "we should interrogate Urahara Kisuke-"

"Impossible. Even if one of our number currently in the Real World decided to ask him, we would have no way of receiving the information. And in light of the present condition of the Dangai, we cannot open up a stable passageway to send anything and expect it to survive, let alone accurately reach its' intended destination."

"Then we can only-"

"Correct. We can only wait for the Dangai to stabilize. I estimate that stability may be weeks in coming." The projections vanished.

Captain Yamamoto leaned forward. "Kurotsuchi-taicho, would this have any effect on Aizen's plans?"

"Unknown. This kind of event is unprecedented. I would surmise however, that since all realms can be connected, that this might affect any communications from Hueco Mundo to the Real World as well. If possible, this disturbance might also destabilize the dimension between the two, rendering it impossible for any hollow or Arrancar to traverse the space and thus enter the Real World. If," he raised a finger insistently. "_if_ that is the case, then it is safe to say that Karakura town is safe from enemy activity. Aizen would have to wait in order to utilize the town to create a new King's Key."

"Well," Ukitake said with a slight smile. "I'm sure that we can rest well then knowing that Karakura is safe."

"That would be all we are capable of doing at this point, Ukitake."

"Hmm, and we can only hope that Aizen is likewise restricted…"

***

Sometime later, Grimmjow snuck out of his quarters and attempted to open up a Garganta to sneak off to Karakura and repay the "stupid strawberry" for wounding him. Unfortunately, the loud cracking of the garganta attracted Tosen to see what was going on.

"Gimmjow, you are disobey-"

"So what?! I have a score to settle with that idiot anyway! I don't care…what are you staring at?"

Tosen couldn't make sense of the chaos that he detected in the garganta. _What is this?! The garganta is…_ Without finishing the thought, he called for Aizen.

_"What is it, Tosen?"_

"Aizen-sama, something is awry with the gargantas."

Aizen appeared two minutes later and studied the scene with interest while Tosen stood behind him, awaiting his verdict. Grimmjow slunk to the back, ignored like the one-armed numero he was.

"Hmm, it seems that the garganta has become too chaotic for anyone to travel. Interesting."

"What does that mean, Aizen-sama?"

"For some reason, the energy in the garganta is currently uncontrollable. To step into it and attempt to travel it would be akin to sticking a fruit into a blender. It would be torn apart by the wild energies inside the portal."

"But that means-"

"Indeed, we cannot travel to any other dimensions at this time." There was a moment of silence. "Very well, we will simply have to wait."

"But Aizen-sama, couldn't Soul Society travel here?"

"I think not, Tosen. The Senkaimon cannot be easily reconfigured to engineer a path here, and such a pathway would be subject to the same instabilities. No, we are quite safe here."

"Agh, damn it!" Grimmjow growled. "And I wanted to kill that fucking strawberry!" Amazingly, Tosen and Aizen acted as though he hadn't spoken. Grimmjow was surprised. Tosen was supposed to have reprimanded him for his lack of respect. He never seemed to pass up any chance to do so. Apparently, this affair had him very concerned.

***

Hitsugaya and his team closed in on sector 5830, hoping that nothing bad was happening. _Please still be alive. Kuchiki-taicho is going to kill me if you two are dead, or worse…_


	10. Chapter 9

**Thanks to all who reviewed. Please keep reviewing! Just a note: when winter break finishes, I won't be able to update as often, though I will try. I will make this part of a double update since I accidentally posted this chapter before with Chapter Eight.**

Chapter Nine: Pain-filled reunion

Ichigo and the hollow clashed yet again, and then drew apart, each sustaining a new set of wounds. Ichigo panted from exertion while the hollow wore a twisted smile out of annoyance and enjoyment.

**"Come on, king! Are you tired?"**

"Hell no!" Ichigo shouted back. The hollow smirked.

**"Funny, you look a little pale!"** he shouted as he charged forward.

Ichigo deflected the thrust upward while gathering energy in his blade. "Getsuga Tensho!" He brought it down in a powerful slice that carved a gash in the hollow's chest.

**"Heh, ya know, now yer acting like a real king!"** the hollow commented as he withdrew once more.

"Uh, thanks, I think." Ichigo muttered as he gave chase.

With a battle like this, it was a good thing that they weren't fighting in the Real World. The hollow had already used one of it's special point-blank Getsuga Tensho attacks, and Ichigo was still using canyonizing waves. The skyscrapers of the inner world were being sliced into so many pieces as the two rebounded from their attacks that two had already collapsed and shattered, broken testaments to their power.

The odd thing was, both Ichigo and the hollow seemed to have the same amount of energy now. Ichigo was fighting now with all out determination while the hollow took the opportunity to gauge his strength, which was growing exponentially. Of course, the hollow couldn't just admit that outright.

**"Tell ya what, king, let's end this!"**

"Heh, if you say so!"

Billowing black energy exploded from both of their blades, black and white, as they prepared for a final engagement. Simultaneously: "L**E**T**S** D**O** T**H**I**S**!"

Ichigo charged forward performing his habitual sideways slash, while the hollow readied a deflection, knocking Ichigo's blade downward, before bringing his own blade with a crushing two-handed blow, which Ichigo met with his own full power attack.

Neither was as strong as Kuromaru, so their titanic clash did not have the same scale of damaging blowout. That was not to say that it wasn't destructive. The wave blew apart what was left of several nearby buildings. On the whole, it seemed like something that Kenpachi would have done.

Ichigo gasped and struggled to stay standing while he tried to see the condition of his hollow. He wasn't disappointed. The hollow's blade was shattered, and he had nearly been cut in half.

**"Eh heh…looks like…yer still king. Fine, I'll…share power with you, but ya better not disappoint me!"**

Ichigo breathed a deep sigh of relief as his hollow turned to wisps of white and dispersed into nothingness.

_Well, I did it. Now how do I get out of here?!_

***

Renji was busy trying to use kido to set himself free from the ice on his arm. It wasn't going so well. He had blown himself up several times, and only scratched, _scratched_, the damn ice!

"If only I could use Zabimaru…" he muttered. Unfortunately, Zabimaru was covered in the same ice coating his hand. _Hey wait a minute! I'm still holding it, so I should be able to-!_ "Bankai!"

The ice exploded as Zabimaru expanded and released a ton of energy, and in keeping with Renji's lack of foresight, some shards embedded themselves in his ribs. "Agh! Fuck!" he swore as he yanked them out. And then he turned his attention to Sode no Shirayuki. _This is gonna hurt, but…_ "GYAAAH!" With a howl of pain, he jerked the zanpaku-to out of his shoulder. He looked over and contemplated throwing it to Rukia, but decided against it. Given her present condition, crying and sobbing over the idiot, he was more likely to hit her with it, and she was in no shape to fight. He dropped it and then whipped Zabimaru's snake skull at Enishi.

Uryu was relieved when he saw Renji pull himself free. Perhaps now he would have a better chance of actually landing even one strike on the ice master.

Enishi grabbed Zabimaru by the jaw, and threw it sideways where it nailed itself into the wall. "Come now, Abarai. You will have to do better than that if you want to extract vengeance for your friend."

Renji growled. "You asked for this!" he stated as he tugged Zabimaru free of the wall. "Hikotsu Taiho!"

Enishi was silhouetted against an incoming beam of red light, and then vanished as it crashed into him. Uryu gathered the waste particles from the beam, focused it into one single arrow, and then fired. A second resounding explosion let him know that this one had finally hit the captain. The third explosion however, did not originate from the cloud of dust obscuring him from view.

Ichigo's body and zanpaku-to lit up in an aura of reddish black energy, before it burst outward. A second wave of dust bllowed outward, and then parted to reveal that Ichigo was indeed alive, and wearing his mask. It was evenly patterned with white and red stripes, but other than that it was the same.

The sight of this pulled Rukia out of her tearful stupor, and was a sufficient stimulus to get Chad back on his feet.

"I-Ichigo?"

"Who did you think it would be? Kaien?" Rukia flinched while Renji sealed his zanpaku-to and clubbed him with it.

"You idiot! You don't have to remind her about that!"

"Oww…why are you guys here?"

"We came because _you_ disappeared without telling us where the hell you went! Hitsugaya-taicho told us to keep an eye on you-"

"Toshiro sent you here?"

"Yeah!"

"Well you don't have to yell in my ear! Hey Rukia, why were you crying?"

Rukia sniffed and wiped the tears away. "Idiot! I thought you were dead!"

"Dead?! Didn't Enishi-"

"No, I didn't Kurosaki," Enishi answered as he emerged from the dust cloud. "I decided to, how shall I put it, _play_ with your friends emotions. I sat down, holding your blade, and waited for them to arrive. And if you recall, I never stated that Kurosaki was dead. I merely said that he was beyond aid _at the moment_, and you fell for it," he finished with a cruel smile behind his helmet.

"You bastard!" Ichigo hissed. "Why did you have to torture my friends?!"

"Because I do not find entertainment in battle, like Raiden. Now, if you are done asking questions, we will move on to the next phase, Kurosaki.

"And the rest of you, I suggest you leave before the captain gets back. He will not be happy if he finds you here." With that, Enishi grabbed Ichigo and disappeared, and Hitsugaya showed up.

"Whoa!" Ikkaku exclaimed as he looked around. "Man, what did I miss?"

Hitsugaya let his eyes settle on Renji and Rukia, whose eyes were still very red and was sheathing her zanpaku-to. "What happened here?"

Both eyed each other, and then turned to answer.

"Well, you see…"

***

Now in the sub-basement level, Enishi and Ichigo began.

"Okay Kurosaki. I will be teaching you control, since that is my specialty. Now control is critical in a battle, because if you cannot handle yourself, you cannot match your opponent. You have a very basic grasp of control, but with your Getsuga Tensho, you force Zangetsu to deal with the energy as you randomly pour in as much as possible."

"But how would controlling it myself help?"

Enishi grabbed his forehead. "Dense as usual, Kurosaki. If you control the energy, then instead of it being a move only used for attack, you can use it to enhance your strikes rather than firing it off the moment you pour energy into it. Also, if you parcel it off, you can last longer as you do not waste as much of your energy when you attack, and you can attack faster."

Ichigo thought about it. "I still don't really get it," he said sheepishly.

Enishi sighed. "Very well, I will show you." He released Tsukiyomi and turned to a clear area. "Now, Tsukiyomi works in pretty much the same way, except that it shoots ice rather than energy. Now observe. If I pour in my energy without controlling it, I attack this fast in five seconds," Five waves of ice, one after another streaked from the tip. "but if I control it, I can attack this fast." Hundreds of smaller streams of water were ejected, and they froze in midair before impaling the wall of ice from before. "So you see, if you set up the energy before you attack, you can use set amounts and all your zanpaku-to has to worry about is merely firing it. Forcing it to handle the control is hardly fair, because it is _your_ energy."

Ichigo thought, and then nodded. "Okay I get it."

"However," Enishi continued. "you are not at that stage yet. So the first thing we will work on is reiatsu suppression. You see that armor?" he gestured toward a pile. "Put it on, and then lie down."

Puzzled, Ichigo nonetheless did as he was told. Enishi bent down and placed his hand on the armored chestplate, and Ichigo suddenly felt four tons heavier.

"What the fuck?!"

"The seal on the armor forces it to react to your energy. The more energy you are putting out, the heavier it is. In order to take off the armor, as that is your goal, you need to completely seal your power.

"Now keep in mind, Kurosaki, this exercise is second nature to most shinigami. The only exceptions that I can name are you and Kenpachi Zaraki, and we are here to rectify that. As I said before, you learn best when under pressure. You have however long it takes for you to starve to death in order to seal your energy. Good luck." Enishi walked away while Ichigo contemplated various ways to kill the renegade captain.

***

Sayu emerged unharmed from a garganta into Hueco Mundo and immediately after it closed, she was confronted by Halibel, Apache, Mila Rose and Sun-Sun.

"Well, who's the welcoming party?"

Apache, Mila Rose and Sun-Sun looked at each other incredulously while Halibel merely raised an eyebrow at the armored former captain.

"You are an intruder on Aizen's territory. It is…unfortunate that we are here, for you, because I am an Espada, one of Aizen's elite."

Sayu snorted. "Elite? Puh-leeze. Your power doesn't even register-"

"How dare you talk to Halibel-sama that way!" Apache yelled and stepped forward.

"That might not be a good idea," Sun-Sun commented while laying a sleeve on her shoulder.

Sayu smiled. "Temperamental little bitch, isn't she?" Apache exploded.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A BITCH?!"

"Calm down! Don't let her get to you…" Sun-Sun desperately tried to keep her from lunging while Mila chuckled.

"What? The truth hurt, Apache?"

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Apache screamed as she turned and attacked Mila. Halibel sighed and put her palm on her face while trying to ignore the screams and snarls of a vicious catfight.

_What I would give to have them stop…_

"Who are you?"

Sayu drew herself up. "You can tell _Aizen-kun_," she said in an overly sweet voice "that one of his old captains is baaaaack! And she's not happy with him!"

Halibel's eyes widened. "You are his old captain?"

"Hanabusa-taicho, at your service, or not!"

"Ha! You expect us to believe that you are stronger than Aizen-sama?" Apache demanded in between smacks.

**SLSH**! Two swipes apiece appeared on Apache, Mila and Sun-Sun. Each now bore a vertical line of blood down their face perfectly straddling the bridge of their noses, and a hairline horizontal slash across their necks. Any of which would have been fatal if Sayu had pressed in a little bit deeper.

**KLANG**! Halibel deflected two unseen strikes while a third made it's mark between her breasts. Her eyebrows nearly leapt off her face. _What speed! I didn't even see her move, and I barely sensed her intentions…_

"I don't expect you to believe it, it's the truth." Sayu replied, flicking some non-existent blood from her gauntlets. "Normally I'd take some time to play, but my captain told me not to. So do tell Aizen that Hanabusa-taicho and company are baaaaack!

"Now let's see," she muttered to herself as she turned away. "what can I play with around here…"

"H-Halibel-sama?"

"Sun-Sun?"

"What do we do now?" she asked in a shaky voice, stunned from the encounter and near-death experience.

"…we report this. Go!"

"H-hai!"

Halibel cast one last gaze at Sayu's retreating form. _…to strike so fast and to have such strength…you transcend the Espadas…_

***

"I apologize, Hitsugaya-san, but it is truly out of my hands. I do not have a method of restoring communications to Soul Society, or a method of transportation at the moment."

"Urahara," Hitsugaya was not in the best of moods. "do you mean to say that there is _nothing_ we can do to restore the link?!"

"Exactly."

"Wait, what was that about transportation?"

"I also am unable to transport anything to Soul Society."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that the Dangai has been destabilized."

"What?!"

"And because it is unstable, I cannot send a signal, let alone a physical object, and expect it to safely reach it's destination."

"…I see."

"Having trouble, gentlemen?"

Urahara inclined his head. "I didn't know that you would ever use that term, Namikawa-san."

"There's a first time for everything, ain't there?" Raiden asked defensively. "Well I hear you want to transport something to Soul Society."

"And why should we trust you?!" Hitsugaya demanded.

"Temper shorty," Hitsugaya's eyes flared dangerously. "You don't have to, but if your communication is a matter of speed, you ain't got a choice, pal."

"Urahara," Rukia called. "could you set up the Senkaimon?"

"Unfortunately I cannot do that right now. We do have an alternative method of travel though, provided you are willing to trust him."

"What?" Rukia asked as she walked in. "What are you talk-" she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Well, if it isn't the third ice midget in the town."

Everyone in the area froze and awaited the inevitable.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET?!?!" Rukia screamed as she lunged at him and tried to pummel him.

"Well, let's see," Raiden continued as he bent down, snagged Rukia's ankle and dangled her in front of his helmet. "I'm calling a vertically challenged emotionally traumatized adopted noble who controls ice a midget."

Renji laughed. "Ha ha ha ha, he's got you there, Rukia! Ha ha h-"

While upside down, Rukia unsheathed her zanpaku-to released it and pointed it at her pineapple friend.

"Oh shit…"

"Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!"

"Waaaaah!" The room chilled by several degrees while Renji was encased up to his neck in Rukia's ice wave.

"Ne, Hitsugaya-taicho, a little help here?"

"You did bring this on yourself, Abarai," Hitsugaya commented with a slight twist of his mouth. "Besides, I still haven't forgiven you for that "boys with silver hair" crack."

"Aw come on! That was a joke!"

Raiden dropped Rukia ignobly on her head as he grasped his blade.

"Want me to help ya with that?"

Renji eyed the looming captain with a sense of impending doom. "Uh…"

**KRAK! KREESH!**

"There. That wasn't so bad, was it?" Raiden asked as he sheathed his blade. "Now it seems you need something taken to Soul Society, right? Well, blame the captain for this. He destabilized the Dangai so that it would be impossible for dear Aizen to send his flunkies to the Real World. Only the four of us can still move between dimensions, safely."

"How so? All methods of travel are subject to the instabilities of the dimensions now."

"Oh, trust me Urahara, if it makes you feel better." It didn't.

"I was going to send Soul Society a complete report of everything that happened in Karakura so far, but…" Hitsugaya trailed off.

"Hitsugaya-taicho, Orihime wants to go to Soul Society to train with us," Rukia added. "I could take the report for you-"

Hitsugaya silenced her with a glare. "I don't trust Namikawa Raiden,"

"I'm right here ya know!"

"but I don't see any other option. Still, I would feel better if someone else went with you, like Shihouin Yoruichi."

"Present…who wanted me?" Yoruichi called as she walked into the room and stretched. Urahara locked eyes with her.

"Hitsugaya-san wishes for you to accompany Inoue-san and Kuchiki-san while they are escorted to Soul Society by Namikawa-san."

Yoruichi warily eyed Raiden, who waved his hand idly. "I could do that. Besides, I have to get used to walking aga-ow…" she winced as she stretched her leg.

"Alright, if you're coming, I suggest you get under Inoue's Soten Kishun shield, because that will be the only thing that can protect all three of you from my reiatsu and the energies of the garganta." With that, Raiden opened a wildly fluctuating garganta, grabbed Orihime's Soten Kishun shield and then took a step into the portal while muttering "Now what did Enishi say about this thing?"

Meanwhile, inside the shield, Rukia and Yoruichi simultaneously thought _I've got a bad feeling about this…_


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: The stupid bastard

_I'm going to kill him,_ Ichigo swore to himself. _I'm going to kill that stupid bastard. I'm going to take his arms off, gut him and-_

**Ya know, as much as we both want to kill him, it might be better if we GET THIS FUCKING ARMOR OFF FIRST!!!!**

Ichigo winced. _Ow…no need to scream-_

**Screw you! Just seal all yer energy and we can get out of this!**

_How?_ Ichigo demanded. He could hear the hollow smack himself across the face.

**Yer killin' me, partner. Are ya too dense to feel your reiatsu flowing through your body?**

Now that he mentioned it…Ichigo took stock of himself and his senses, and he could feel a sort of current flowing through himself. _Okay, now what?_

**Now**, the hollow continued not-so-patiently, **find the source and push your energy into it to seal it.**

While it may have sounded simple, Ichigo was finding out just why it was so hard to control his energy. There was simply so much of it that wherever he thought he had it contained, it still managed to seep out like high pressure water around a blockage near an outlet. Gritting his teeth, he determinedly cornered his energy and herded it toward the core of his being, ironically his heart. This task took him four long and agonizing hours, and it took all his concentration to keep the energy from exploding back out. Once he was sure that it was all contained, he began to move, and immediately regretted it as his muscles protested from lying in the same position for a total of nine hours. The surprise pain broke his concentration and his reiatsu exploded out again, nailing his body back to the ground. Ichigo saw red, and in record time, he quashed his energy and forced it back to his heart before springing up onto his feet and stripping off every last part of the armored suit with more force than absolutely necessary. He had lost count of the number of joints that he heard cracking by the time Enishi sensed his success and came over.

"Ah, you did it. How do you feel?"

"…can I say that I hate your guts for doing that to me?"

Enishi laughed. "Funny. Those are the exact words that I used after the first time that my captain made me do this exercise, and I only did it in one hour."

"…showoff…"

"Well, you only did it once. You'll be doing it again until you can suppress your energy in the time it takes me to do a one-eighty."

"Ah crap!"

"But before we do that, I'll let you loosen up a bit in a therapeutic hot spring."

Ichigo's head spun. "A hot spring? Down here?"

"Blame Raiden. He set it up. He dumped a pool's worth of ice cold water over me while he made a hot spring. Something about "some like it hot, some like it cold." "

Ichigo grinned. "And what did you do?"

"I froze the hot spring while he was in it, and I'll be doing it again soon if you don't want to use it."

Ichigo fairly dived into it and came up with a sigh of relief as the soothing heat loosened up his overly stiff joints. After five minutes however, Enishi showed up and stabbed the tip of his spear into the hot spring. The loud crackling noise of ice forming jolted Ichigo out of his stupor, and he leapt out of the pool before he would have found himself encased in ice.

"Why the hell did you do that?" he demanded as the last bit of the spring froze.

"Because I didn't feel like yanking you out. Break's over. Back to training. You know what to do."

Grumbling, Ichigo complied, and then seconds after Enishi had placed the seal, he was already stripping off the armor. Enishi whistled appreciatively. "Heh, you really do learn fast under pressure. Very well, now there is the next phase."

"What's that?"

In answer, Enishi grabbed the chestplate, locked it over Ichigo's chest, and then placed a different seal on it. "WhoaAAAOOF! Ow…" Once again, Ichigo found himself pinned to the ground.

"This time, seal your energy into the area covered by the armor," Enishi explained as he watched Ichigo suppress his energy and yank it off. Then he clasped the helmet, put it on, and placed the seal once more. **KLANG!** "OW! Jeez!"

"The purpose of this exercise," Enishi said, ignoring Ichigo's cries of protest. "is to start you down the road of manipulating your energy instead of merely sealing it. You will find that this exercise is more difficult, because you need to not only seal your existing energy, but also move it to the proper area and stop the outbound flow. Good luck." And then he disappeared leaving Ichigo wondering now whether vindictiveness was connected to an affinity for ice.

***

"Hmm, and that is all?"

"Hai, Aizen-sama. That is exactly what she said."

"…very well, you are dismissed." Halibel bowed, and led her Fraccion out of the great hall. Aizen inclined his head and pressed his fingertips together, deep in thought.

"Well, captain, it looks like they came back."

Aizen smiled slightly. "So it would seem, Gin."

"D'ya think that they've forgiven Soul Society for it?"

"…I do not believe so, but they might perhaps work with them if they view us as the greater evil."

"…and so the paths become soaked with blood once more…"

"Well, yer melancholy today, Tosen. What's up?"

"It never seems to end, no matter how much we strive for justice…blood is always shed."

Aizen smiled benignly. "And yet all paths inevitably have strife and struggle, Kaname. It is the way of all things."

"Hai, Aizen-sama."

"Heh, ya know what captain?" Aizen eyed Gin inquiringly, who had lost his customary smirk. "We thought that no one could come here, and yet lil' Halibel said that Hanabusa-taicho came from a garganta. That shows that it is possible for Soul Society to travel here-"

"But only if they can survive the chaotic energies. It would be foolish to expect that those four couldn't survive such a trip if they truly escaped the depths of Hell and regained their powers."

"Well, what about Soul Society sending others to the Real World?"

"Then they would have to survive negotiating a path through the Dangai that is subject to random twisting and warping with the likely threat of becoming permanently lost and trapped. Again, only those with truly transcendent power can create their own pathway through the Koryu, and they would likely have to travel alone."

"Why? Too much power would kill the others?"

"Correct."

There was a moment of silence, and then "…Aizen-sama?"

"Yes, Tosen?"

"Do you have any theories as to why the seal failed?"

"The seal master was one of those who spoke out against imprisoning them, so perhaps he merely sabotaged the process. Unfortunately, there is no way to confirm it since he left Soul Society three years later. Pity, their escape does not bode well for our plans…"

"Well it's too late to turn back now eh, captain?"

Aizen smiled again. "Indeed, we will simply have to make do."

***

Raiden emerged inside the Seireitei dragging the battered Soten Kishun behind him, and right in the office of a stunned Sentaro and Kiyone.

"Express delivery," he literally growled as the garganta sealed. "Now either get whitey up and out here, or I'll do it myself."

Sentaro got it first, and ignoring Kiyone's protests, he practically dragged Ukitake out. Both promptly hid behind their captain, away from the armored looming figure. Orihime recalled her shield, and then Rukia came out and explained everything.

"Well, the training field isn't being used anymore, so I guess it would be alright for you two to train on it, but the captain-general won't be happy that a potential enemy was brought here-"

"Ya got it wrong, Jushiro," Raiden corrected. "I brought _them _here, along with Shihouin because "short 'n silver" wanted someone to ensure that they got here all right. And unless you all have a problem with it, I'm leaving because I don't have time to have a fight with the captain-general now. I'm not that much of a battle-crazed idiot-hey! Speaking of which, baldy said that his captain is Kenpachi Zaraki, you know where he is?"

Kiyone's hand emerged comically from behind Ukitake and pointed while she squeaked "Um, that way?"

Raiden was gone before she finished. Yoruichi groaned and Ukitake palmed his face with one hand while he started searching for a hell butterfly to notify the other captains that no they were not under attack. It was just the usual meeting of deranged powerhouses, no big deal.

***

Kenpachi Zaraki loved fighting. He also loved to pick fights. Those loves came together when Raiden dropped from the sky and smashed into the ground directly in front of him, Byakuya and Soifon. They had been discussing the events of late, with Kenpachi being more interested in the _battles_ of late. Go figure. The dust cleared and Raiden rose to his feet while Soifon gasped. Kenpachi grinned.

"What? Ya scared?" he asked as he stepped forward. "Ninja bitch," he muttered.

"Ya know," Raiden called as he walked from the crater. "it isn't nice to insult your allies."

Soifon was petrified. "T-that's Raiden!"

Kenpachi's ears perked up. "Raiden? The other fight-lover that you told me about? Heh, what a great day! I'm going to enjoy this fight!"

"Zaraki-taicho," Byakuya warned. "he is well beyond any of us here-"

"Tch! Weakling!" Kenpachi snorted. Raiden angled his head.

"I like your attitude. Shall we get started?"

"W-wait! Zaraki!" Soifon protested. "He far outmatches you, and you two would end up destroying everything here!"

"Fighting is all about strength! I won't enjoy it unless I fight strong people!" Kenpachi retorted as he unsheathed his massively long zanpaku-to. And without further ado, both launched their opening attacks, stunning even Byakuya with the enormity of the destruction. From far away, Yoruichi palmed her face and groaned while a massive mushroom-shaped pillar of smoke and flame rose up. _Those two stupid idiotic bastards…_

***

Later, after Raiden's departure and a roundabout collective thrashing of Kenpachi, which included Unohana giving him death threats if he ever decided to pull a stunt like that again, Rukia stood in the captain's hall with Yoruichi and Orihime, reading out loud Hitsugaya's report.

"Hmm, so Kuromaru is responsible for the disturbance in the Dangai?"

"Hai. Namikawa-taicho said that himself."

"…there must have been other ways to disrupt Aizen's operations without having to completely destabilize the dimensions."

"Possible, but not feasible," Kurotsuchi interjected. "To sabotage Aizen's plan in its entirety, one would have to eradicate everything that he has affected in every area that he has been. One might just as easily annihilate Hueco Mundo, Soul Society and the Real World."

That brought a chill to everyone in the room. Destroy entire dimensions? Would it really come to that?

"However, that is a possibility that we cannot completely discount. We were established to safeguard the Royal Family, who we know that Aizen is after. Our main priority as we were established is to ensure their survival. The survival of anything else is of secondary concern."

"Kurotsuchi-taicho!" Ukitake exclaimed. "We cannot just write off the lives of all the innocents like that!"

"I am merely stating fact. The fact remains firmly established that our duty, first and foremost, is to safeguard the Royal Family."

"Quiet!" And there was. "While it is true that is what we exist to protect, we should not speculate on what we may be forced to do, but rather concentrate on what we can do as of right now. We cannot afford to sacrifice the innocents of the Real World, but neither can we afford to let Aizen win. However, until the Dangai destabilizes, there is little else we can do but prepare ourselves for when confrontations resume…"

***

Ichigo didn't even touch the ground with his shoulder before he had already stripped off the sealed gauntlet. Enishi eyed him appraisingly.

"Very well, I pronounce you ready to truly learn. From now on, I will be teaching you myself rather than forcing you to learn on your own like this."

Ichigo was elated. After three long days of reiatsu control exercises, he was eager to move on. "Alright!" he exclaimed, forgetting just how tired he was. "When do we start?"

Enishi smirked behind his helmet. "Tomorrow, since you are about to fall asleep."

"Wha-?" Ichigo didn't even touch the ground before his eyes closed.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: History lesson

Raiden emerged in Hueco Mundo and raced to catch up to Sayu, who was just done with her "playtime."

"My turn, but I already had some fun with another captain before I got here."

"WHAAA! No fair!" Sayu exclaimed as she searched for the pieces of her armor while Raiden stripped his off.

"Deal with it," he grunted. "Even someone like you has to deal with reality sooner or later."

"If I recall," Sayu returned, all humor gone. "we do that every day."

"Ain't that the truth…" Raiden muttered as he wrapped everything in his cloak and buried it slightly in the sand.

"Well, I'll tell the captain and Enishi where you are."

"Yeah, the usual."

"And Raiden, try _not_ to wipe everything out. We still require their services later!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

Sayu turned, opened a garganta and vanished into it's depths. Raiden turned his unmasked white and gold eyes toward the distance. "Now what can **we trash around here**?" he asked himself as his eyes changed to black with crimson irises…

***

Ichigo woke to find himself in the same position as before, facedown on the floor. He got up and stretched while wonderng distantly what these four had against a proper bed.

"Well, are we ready, Kurosaki?" Enishi called from the doorway.

"…actually there's something I've been wondering. How do you guys know so much about my inner hollow?"

Enishi was silent for a bit. "…do you want to hear the whole story?"

"Uh, sure, I guess…"

Enishi walked over, swiped the floor with Tsukiyomi and created a chair of ice, before sitting down in it. "Well, let's see, where to begin, where to begin?

"About one hundred and sixty years ago, we four were used as gruesome experiments in hollowfication. As my captain tells me, since I was only an infant at the time, the man who took us in, Murakami Binichi, plucked me, Raiden and Sayu off the streets from Rukongai. He lured the captain in as part of a larger group of older children. He experimented on a total of twenty eight children of various ages and strengths."

Ichigo tried to hide his disgust as he asked "What did he do?"

"…he injected the hollow energy directly into each of our hearts."

"WHAT?!?!?!"

"Now there are some things you should know about hollow energy, Kurosaki. When you mix it with shinigami energy, they both annihilate each other until there is no more of one or the other, or they completely cancel out. And when they do, the process is rather explosive; so imagine what that feels like when it occurs inside your konpaku…"

"…that sounds…painful."

"You really have no idea. Now, where konpaku are concerned, there is a…"sweet spot" amount of energy that ensures hollowfication. Too much, and the konpaku transforms into a hollow. Too little, and the hollow energy is completely wiped out. And when they are mixed in equal amounts, the annihilation process completely disintegrates the soul."

"…wait. If you added too much, why wouldn't the konpaku be destroyed?"

"The reishi would still be bonded together, but with hollow energy, and so it would mutate."

"Oh."

"Now as I said, he experimented on twenty-eight of us. Three of us were disintegrated and the others became hollows that were wiped out. Only the four of us survived, and we often wished that we hadn't. We are unnatural creations, aberrations that should not exist, and so there are flaws within us. We are cursed to eternal pain so long as we exist, because our bodies see the hollow energy within us as a foreign invader, and so it tries to eliminate it. Not only that, if we do not use the energy for long periods, it build up to dangerous levels, so we have to expel it through battle. Although, that development came to be because we all made pacts with our inner hollows. The captain, curiously, is exempt from such a defect, or so he says. Anyway, the correct amount of energy is only slightly above the corresponding amount of shinigami energy. Thus, there are remnants of both shinigami and hollow energy to bind the reishi of our bodies together. This is our version of hollowfication. So to answer your question, the reason that we know so much is because we have the same general problem, with some extra…complications."

"…whoa, I'm sorry-"

"It's not your fault. Now you, Kurosaki, are a natural example of hollowfication. No outside energy was involved. I suppose we would think of it like this. We are the first attempts, our lieutenants are a second and refined attempt, and you are the finished product. I suspect that Aizen drew directly from Murakami's lost records, and so did Urahara."

"So bucket hat-"

"-is just as guilty as Aizen and Murakami. And that is enough of the history lesson. Now it is time for your real lesson, basic kido."

Ichigo shook his head to clear it, and then got to his feet. "So what first?"

***

Gin swiftly crossed the sandy wastes of Hueco Mundo with Nnoitra and Tesla as they hunted for the source of a massive expulsion of hollow energy that Aizen was concerned about.

_Flashback_

_"Gin, we have another visitor."_

_"Eh? Here?"_

_"Yes. Our scouts have reported a massive discharge of energy, hollow in nature that is greater than that of a Vasto Lordes."_

_Gin whistled. "Whew! Are you sure about that? We spent ninety years searching this place and we never found anything beyond the."_

_"Well," Aizen continued. "it is hollow in nature, but there is also traces of shinigami power. I'm inclined to believe that it is either Kurosaki, or another of our old captains."_

_"Yeesh!"_

_"So, take someone with you. I believe that Nnoitra has done everything short of petitioning me for a chance to go out and..."blow off some steam," as he put it."_

_"Okay, okay. I'll take them with me."_

_Flashback end_

Gin smirked inwardly. And he had thought that it was impossible to _really_ annoy his old captain. He'd have to ask Nnoitra for some pointers later on.

"There! I do believe that is the disturbance that we are looking for."

"Heh, I think yer right, Tesla. What about you, Ichimaru-sama?"

"Yep, no doubt about it. And Nnoitra, it's just Gin. Ya don't have to kiss ass with me."

"Okay then, _Gin_, shall we go?"

***

**"Hnn, what's that?"** Raiden asked himself, turning his red and black eyes toward a distant rapidly approaching speck.

_**Well it seems that Aizen has detected our rampage, and sent your lieutenant's replacement to deal with it,**_ Raiden's inner hollow commented.

**"Heh, well this should be better than trying to vent with these pathetic chumps."**

_**They're only pathetic because they're not like us, and because a muscle head like you talks only about strength.**_

**"Tch, whatever. That doesn't change the fact that they're still pathetic."**

_**I suppose...**_ the hollow acquiesced.

Nnoitra, Tesla and Gin came to a stop directly in front of the hollowfied former captain.

**"Eh heh, well if it isn't my traitorous successor. Ya know, I thought that the Third Division is full of headstrong people too, but there are better ways of dealing with job stress than trying to obliterate your job."**

"Well, it's true that it is stressful," Gin playfully replied. "but I didn't do this because it's hard. I decided to help Aizen-taicho create a better world-"

**"-which would likely include the elimination of your responsibilities, right? Checkmate, my game, kid."**

"How dare you address Ichimaru-sama that way-"

**"Shut it you little piece of bullshit,"** Raiden commanded. Tesla bristled.

"I'M A PIECE OF WHAT?!?!"

"Well," Nnoitra commented while Tesla started to rant. "that's new. I thought I'd never see him lose his temper like that."

Gin smirk remained plastered on his face. "Well, there's a first time for everything, ain't there?"

After fifteen minutes of Tesla shouting non-stop without breath…

"Hey Tesla," Gin called. "I know that ya like screaming at him but it would be more productive if you actually fought him."

**"Huh, you say something?"** Raiden asked while clearing his ear.

"Tesla, back down. I'll handle him," Nnoitra stated as he drew his zanpaku-to and made ready to attack.

"Ooh, did I come back at a bad time?" Sayu chirped as she exited the portal.

**"I thought you went back to tell the captain."**

"He wasn't there, so I decided to come back for a little extra. How come you get all the fun?" she pouted.

**"'Cause I'm in the right place at the right time, in contrast to you."**

"Well, I can't exactly say that it's a pleasure to see you again, Hanabusa-taicho," Gin called out with a mock bow."

"I'm surprised. Where did you learn actual manners?"

"Aw come on, you wound me!"

"With you, it's easy to do so."

**"Could you shut up?! This is my fight, in case you haven't noticed."**

"But you already had some extra fun…" Sayu whined as she drew back.

Nnoitra grinned. "Yer gonna regret coming here, _captain_."

**"Well this will be fast," **Raiden said as he released his zanpaku-to. **"Wanna know why?**

**"Two reasons,"** he held up his hand. **"One: you're ugly, and I'm not."**

"Why you-!" Nnoitra charged at him, suddenly furious.

**"I'm not finished yet,"** Raiden continued as he froze Nnoitra in his tracks from his massive spiritual pressure. He then held up his great axe, which burst into flames. **"Two: I'm fireproof-"** he vanished as a massive explosion of flames erupted in a column that shot Nnoitra skyward. **"-and you're not,"** he finished as Nnoitra fell and slammed into the sands of Hueco Mundo, charred, burnt and nearly unrecognizable. He sighed and sheathed his blade. **"Like I said, it would be fast-"** he broke off as Sayu tackled him to the ground and smashed her sheathed blade on the back of his head. **"Hey-OW! What was that for?!"**

"Stop with the clichés! Seriously, where the hell did you get those horrible one-liners?"

**"Eh, I heard them in a movie, I think it was called…Hellboy. Yeah that's it, Hellboy."**

Sayu snorted. "You watch that American trash? Well that explains a few things."

**"This from a girl who listens to Hann-umph!"** Raiden was cut off as Sayu wrapped a hand around his mouth.

"Excuse me," she asked in a sweet voice that threatened immediate and extensive bodily harm "you weren't trying to say what I thought that was, riiiiiiight?"

Raiden shook his head, slightly fearful of what his sister would do to him at this point.

"Good, because you don't want to ever say that again in front of anyone else, not if you value your life."

Both turned when they heard Gin and Tesla chuckling (Nnoitra made a funny whimper that might have been an attempt at laughter). Gin immediately stopped. "What? I didn't say anything."

Sayu glared at him before she hoisted Raiden up and began dragging him toward where the sack of his armor plating was.

**"Hey! Come on! I'm not done yet!"**

"You already had some extra fun today. You're done now."

**"Oh come on!"** Raiden continued to protest as he as dragged further and further away. Gin shook with barely suppressed mirth.

"Heh, I forgot what a pair those two made back then. Well, Tesla, couldja help lift Nnoitra?"

"I can walk fine on my own…" Nnoitra grumbled as he struggled to his feet and began limping back to Aizen's Las Noches palace.

"Nnoitra-sama, you do realize that you're going to have to ask Szayel-sama to heal you again."

"…ah shit…"

**If anyone wants to know, Raiden was about to say "Hanna Montana." No wonder she doesn't want anyone to know, eh?**


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: The cursing of kido

**KRAK! BOOSH!** "AUGH! FUCK!" Ichigo swore as yet another attempt at a kido blew up in his face. Distantly, he could hear the hollow laughing hysterically at his misfortune. "Unhelpful bastard!"

**Don't know why yer struggling, partner. It shouldn't be **_**that**_** hard, even for **_**you**_**. The midget did walk through the process, step, by, step…**

"YOU'RE NOT HELPING!!" Ichigo screamed as his hollow continued to snicker.

Enishi watched from distance as Ichigo berated his hollow. _I would have thought that given who his father is, he would have excelled at kido._

_**Then you apparently forgot just how bad at controlling his energy he is,**_ his hollow chided.

_True, true. I suppose I just have high expectations for him, given what the captain told us about him…_

While Enishi was lost in his mental conversation, Ichigo was trying to remember what Enishi had said.

_Flashback_

_"Here's a demonstration, Kurosaki," Enishi began while the armor covering his left arm was blasted off. "I will perform this slowly, so you can see each step. Don't look with your eyes. Sense my reiatsu, and you will see."_

_Ichigo nodded while he waited._

_"Okay. Now what am I doing with my energy?"_

_"You're taking a little bit and concentrating it in your arm?"_

_"Correct. Now, what am I doing?"_

_"…you're concentrating it into your hand?"_

_"Exactly. Now, this is something you can see with your eyes." Enishi held his hand up. A glowing spot appeared on his palm, and then the spot became a ball of energy._

_"Wow."_

_"So, can you tell me the third step?"_

_"Uh, pushing the energy out?"_

_"Yes. I'm also telling it what shape to take. Currently, it is a ball. You typically see this when powerful hollows are firing ceros, Like so," Enishi pointed the ball at the wall of ice from his earlier demonstrations, and fired. The cero obliterated the ice in an explosion of shards. "Now, hollows naturally have higher reiatsu controlling abilities than shinigami. The exceptions are those with extensive knowledge of kido and the two of us who can utilize Quincy weaponry. Kido is an art based on fine control, but such control is well beyond your limits right now. So, I will be teaching you moderate to high level kido, because they require a lot of energy to cast, but do not need a ton of control. I will be teaching you these three: Hado 31, Shakkaho," Enishi fired a red ball of energy at the frozen hot spring, melting the ice easily. "Hado 33, Sokatsui," Enishi placed his hand right next to the icy throne that he had fashioned and blew it apart with an explosion of blue energy. "and the last, Bakudo 81, Danku," Enishi aimed his palm at Ichigo and an enormous yellow wall formed between impassive teacher and stunned student. The barrier faded as he lowered his hand. "Each one has incredibly long-winded chants that I won't be bothering with at all. Those are only there to focus the caster's attention and to aid in shaping the energy to the desired form. Your little raven-haired friend only says the name of the chants. With enough energy, it can be just as powerful as the spell and chant together._

_"Now, Shakkaho is a ball of red energy that can be fired as a ball fairly accurately. Sokatsui is a close-ranged blast, similar to a shotgun. Danku can block any attack that strikes head-on and buy you time to prepare your own attack. I will teach you the specifics of each one later. For now, concentrate on creating a stable ball of reiatsu."_

_Flashback end_

"Concentrate it in the arm, then in the palm, and then push it out into the air," Ichigo gritted his teeth as he tried once more. A ball of swirling energy formed above his hand. "All right!" he yelled in exultation, losing his concentration in the process. **KRAK! BOOSH!** "GAH! DAMN IT!"

***

Hitsugaya growled in frustration while Renji, Matsumoto and Ikkaku jacked off by drinking sake and then challenging each other to drunken duels (Matsumoto didn't fight).

"Knock it off! What would happen if there was an attack by Aizen now?"

"Captain, didn't you hear Urahara?" Matsumoto slurred back with difficulty.

A familiar vein pulsed on his forehead. "No…"

"Heh, Hitsugaya-taicho," Ikkaku responded. "Urahara-san said that Aizen can't attack, not while the Dangai is unstable or something like that. Killjoy…"

"And what would happen if he is wrong? Did that occur to you?!"

"Aww, captain, lay off. You're too tense," Matsumoto stated. "Learn to relax some!"

"Grr…" _Your version of relaxing is a month of vacation. You relax every day at work and _I_ wind up doing _your_ papers!_

"Maa maa, Hitsugaya-san. Your fukutaicho is correct," Urahara said deadpan from where he had seemingly teleported into place. "You need to learn to unwind," he added as a steadily expanding vein gave telltale signs of hypertensive blood pressure.

"…"

"Come on, Hitsugaya-san, smile!"

"Uh, Urahara-san?" Renji cautioned. "I don't think you want to be patronizing with him...."

"Oh well, you'll come around eventually. I thought that you had something that you wanted to ask me, Abarai-san."

Renji searched through the drunken recesses of his mind before he remembered. "Well, I-"

"I'll make you a deal. Sado-san has asked me to train him."

"…so what?"

"Well, he will have to go up against the power of a bankai in order to become stronger. Unfortunately, my bankai is not suited to lending power to others. I do happen to know that your bankai will be perfect. My deal is this: you take over for training Sado-san, and I will answer any questions you may have afterwards."

Renji's eyes narrowed. He didn't wholly trust the shady shopkeeper, but he didn't see any hidden motives in the offer. "Fine, I'll do it."

***

"Why do you hesitate, Uryu?" Ryuuken asked as he turned around yet again to find Uryu aiming his bow, poised to strike.

"…"

"Is it because of attachment? Is it the simple fact that I am your father that stays your hand?"

"…"

"…I see, pitiful." Ryuuken raised his own bow and let loose a volley that passed through exactly where Uryu had been standing before. "You are a pathetic excuse for a Quincy," he continued as he turned his attention above, where Uryu now was.

"And why do you say that, Ryuuken?"

"You know about what it is that we do Uryu, and yet you shy away from dealing lethal damage. None of your shots thus far has been at a fatal target."

"That's not true-"

"Not even the arrow that you used on the shinigami who was responsible for Soken's death was aimed at a fatal target," Ryuuken continued, heedless.

"That was a mistake! I tried to kill him-"

"Did you now?" Ryuuken asked in a deadly whisper. "Therein lays the problem. Your body may attempt to kill, and yet your heart is not in it. Thus, you are unable to make your shots strike true, and you are unable to be a true Quincy."

"But-"

"What is it that we do? We completely eradicate souls from existence. Granted, they are fallen, but they were once people. They transformed into monsters that threaten others, so we destroy them."

"I've done that a lot of times-"

"As impersonal targets, it is easier to dispatch them. Your weak point is that those whom you see as people, or enemies, you are unable to kill."

"That's-" Uryu was struck dumb. His father was right. All of the enemies who he knew by name, he hadn't shot to kill, merely to cripple. All he had done was either destroy their powers, or _almost_ kill them.

"Come. You say that you are a Quincy, now prove it! Show me that you can shoot to kill someone you know, someone you would think impossible for you to aim at." Ryuuken beckoned.

Uryu stood frozen, his bow at his side, face toward the floor. Ryuuken sighed. "Very well, it appears that I will have to teach you this the hard way." He raised his bow once again and let fly another volley...

***

For anyone else, the progress would have been nothing short of astonishing. Ichigo had gone from trying to form a ball of energy in his hand to test firing moderate-level kido, with some failures, in eight hours.

"Hado 31, Shakkaho!" **FWASH! KRAK!**

"I believe that you used too much energy, Kurosaki," Enishi commented dryly upon observing a crater a hundred and twenty feet across. "but other than that, fine. Now do the next one."

"Hado 33, Sokatsui!" **KEEEEE! FWASH!**

"And I believe that you used too much control that time," Instead of a swath of destruction, there was a thin line that blew through the stone lining of the sub-basement and twenty feet of dirt beyond. "This is one spell that you can let loose somewhat. Now, the last one."

"Bakudo 81, Danku!" It was less of a plate of energy than a solid block.

Enishi sighed. "Once again, too much energy. Then again, a thick barrier like that can be of practical use. Very well, you have passed. There would be little time to teach you anything else because I only had a week. Raiden will be teaching you the art of battle; actually, he should have already been here. Where the hell is he?" he muttered to himself.

"Right here!" Sayu answered as she dragged Raiden through a portal, by the ear.

"Ow, ow! Jeez, crazy bitch…"

Sayu whirled around. "What did you say?!" she demanded. Raiden gulped as he realized his mistake.

"You know, Raiden," Enishi commented as he and Ichigo watched the proceeding carnage; the latter, with some disbelief and disgust. "believe it or not, there are some days that I envy you. This is not one of them."

"Wow," Ichigo mumbled. "I didn't know you could do that to someone's leg-"

"Oh trust me, Kurosaki. There's a lot worse. One time, I saw her put him in a headlock before she "borrowed" my zanpaku-to and shoved it-"

"HEY! A LITTLE HELP HERE?!?! PLEASE?!?!?!?!"

**THWAK! SLSH! K-K-KREK!**

"TAKE IT BACK! TAKE IT BACK!"

"OW, OW, OW! I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!"

Ten violent minutes later...

Sayu dusted her gauntleted hands off and then walked away from a battered and twisted Raiden.

"I really wonder why you keep trying to say stuff like that," Enishi said mainly to himself as he helped to straighten out limbs that were bent at impossible angles.

"Hey! She doesn't drag _you_ by the ear!"

"That's because I'm not trying to pick a fight with everyone who crosses my path."

"Yeah well, speaking of fights, did you finish training the kid?"

"Sayu had impeccable timing, showing up with you just as I finished."

"Did you test him?"

"I tested him with kido."

"But did you fight him? Before I start training him in how to fight, I'd like to get a second opinion of his skill level other than what we saw when he fought the captain-"

"I'm standing right here, you know," Ichigo interjected. "Do you guys have to talk like I'm not here?" he added testily.

"No, Kurosaki," Enishi sighed as he finished healing Raiden. "but this was supposed to be a private conference. And no, Raiden, I didn't fight him yet."

"Well, could you please?"

Enishi sighed. "Very well. Kurosaki, draw your blade. There is no need for large attacks. I am merely gauging your strength."

Warily, Ichigo complied as Enishi released his zanpaku-to. "This will only be a quick spar, so no need to get really excited," he warned.

With a flourish, Enishi raised the spearhead and brought it down in a two-handed vertical slice. Ichigo was surprised to see that despite the two-handed pose, the blow ricocheted off of his instinctive guard. Enishi's hands went along with the blow and he quickly reversed the direction of the strike, turning it into an upward slicing movement that nearly dislodged Zangetsu from Ichigo's unprepared grip. Caught off guard, he stepped backward as he frantically tried to parry Enishi's spear thrust. He heard a noise of dissatisfaction as he knocked the spear away and disengaged. Enishi leapt forward again and proceeded to launch a furious offensive that Ichigo was hard pressed to deflect. In the midst of the assault, he saw Enishi shaking his helmeted head in disappointment while his attacks were all deflected. _What's going on?_ Ichigo wondered as he worked to shunt away a strong curving slash.

Enishi suddenly stepped back and then sealed his zanpaku-to. "I've seen enough, and so have you, Raiden." Raiden nodded thoughtfully. "I'm certain that you can deduce my opinion of his style," Enishi continued. "so I won't bother saying it. He's all yours, and it's my turn to pay Hueco Mundo a visit." With that, Enishi turned and left through a garganta, leaving Ichigo confused as to what had really happened.

**Now, a couple of you who read this asked me why Raiden didn't have a lightning based zanpaku-to. I can change that if you want.**

**1) Purely flame based**

**2) Fire and lightning based**

**Please vote when you review!  
**


	14. Chapter 13

**Man, this is one of the times that I'm glad I have a second opinion before I post. Okay, I think that from now on, I might be able to post weekly, and I blame homework. This is the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it.**

Chapter Thirteen: What's coming to you

"Kurosaki, do you have any idea what you did wrong during your little spar?" Raiden questioned. Ichigo shook his head. "I thought not. When you fight, you block the vast majority of the blows aimed at you. You never try to dodge unless you have no choice. Your fighting style is based purely on instinct, and is therefore linear, easily predicted and countered by those with true skill.

"You react to things instead of acting to cause them. You let your opponent control the battle by being able to herd you into position. You never see the next blow until it actually lands. That is the problem. You will never defeat Aizen unless you learn to see through your opponent's moves. That is especially important where Aizen is concerned because his zanpaku-to is an illusion-based zanpaku-to, as you found out firsthand. To even have a chance of defeating him, you will have to be just as controlling as he is, as flexible in abilities, and as misleading as his intentions are. Naturally, this is the complete opposite of what you are right now."

"What do you mean by that?!" Ichigo demanded with mounting anger as Raiden's critiques fell upon him like blows.

"I mean that you must be able to instantly change styles, to adapt to anything, and to see the complete picture. You also have to learn how to take control over a battle."

"Huh?" Ichigo wondered intelligently.

"What I mean by that is that you must learn how to control your opponent during a battle," Raiden clarified.

Ichigo's head spun. "Is that even possible?"

Raiden grunted in reply. "Of course it is. How do you think I would get a decent fight if I couldn't keep my opponents from running the hell away from me? I control the battle so that they have to fight me, so it is possible.

"And it is exactly that which I will be teaching you this week. But first, we will brush up on hand-to-hand combat, so stick that oversized kitchen knife" Ichigo swore that he felt an unconnected annoyance upon hearing that nickname. "in the ground for now, and we'll get cracking."

***

Chad grunted as he was slammed for the umpteenth time into the rocky ground beneath Urahara's shop.

"I hope you aren't done yet, Sado Yasutora!" Renji called mockingly as he recalled the massive bone snake to coil around him.

Chad clenched his right fist. "Sorry to disappoint," he relied before lunging forward once again.

Urahara observed the clash from far away. _Sado Yasutora, your power...what concerns me is that it is neither shinigami nor quincy in nature, it's almost as if..._

"Man, I didn't know that the freeloader was such an idiot," Jinta commented.

"Well, I did persuade him to wait awhile with his questions, Jinta-kun."

"But still-whoa!" Chad and Renji had just demonstrated the effects of a point-blank blow from Chad's right arm. "Yeesh, that's scary!"

"Relax, we're well away from being caught up in the blast. There is nothing to fear."

Urahara had spoke too soon. He immediately detected an absolutely livid Kuchiki midget, back from Soul Society thanks to Sayu.

"Urahara!" she literally growled while Jinta disappeared, suddenly remembering more life-preserving things to do. "Why the hell did you tell Orihime that she was too weak to fight?!"

Urahara, sensing that a quick explanation might be a wise decision, held up both hands in a placating gesture. "Maa maa, Kuchiki-san! Let me explain-"

"You better!" she replied as she entered shinigami form.

_Now let's see, how to do this without being entombed in ice..._ "It's simple. Inoue-san's powers are primarily those of defense. Her one method of attacking has been eliminated, and I doubt that even Hachigan, one of the vaizard, would be able to restore it."

"But you saw her healing abilities! Why take her away from the battle entirely?!"

"Because that power is not healing."

"What?!"

"It is spatial distortion. Her Soten Kishun is the ability to deny that an event or series of events ever happened. Through this, Inoue-san can theoretically raise the dead."

"...is that even possible?" Rukia's unquenchable anger had been replaced by incredulity.

"Hai, and it is also possible that her unique power has drawn Aizen's attention. That is the real reason that I wish to keep her from the front lines."

"...then why didn't you say that outright?"

"If Inoue-san believes that she is a liability on the field, she will be more willing to stay away. If I had tried any other way, she would have still attempted to help, regardless of the danger to herself. It was the only way."

Rukia was silent while Urahara turned his head back toward Chad and Renji, and his thoughts to speculation on Chad's powers.

***

"N-no, please! I'm sorry for attacking you, but Aizen-sama ord-Geya-" **K-K-Krek! Kreesh!** The arrancar's protests were cut off as he was encased in ice and destroyed without mercy by Enishi. Enishi silently threaded (or froze) his way through the cowering mass of hybrid hollows, dispatching them with the casual ease that Aizen would be familiar with.

"How dare you attack us! Aizen-sama will-" **Fwash! Kreesh!**

"What do you intend to acc-" **KRAK!**

"AAAAAAHHHH-" **Shuk!**

Enishi twirled his spear with his left hand while firing arrows (black with hollow energy) from his right, and mowing down any who protested or tried to escape.

_**Yeesh, even I'm not this cold-blooded,**_ his hollow chided.

_I control ice. What do you expect?_

_**A more easygoing person?**_

_When I was easygoing, I hadn't yet been betrayed by the very society that I was working for._

_**Ooh, emo-freak. Come on! Why don't you warm up some?**_

_Is that supposed to be funny? And what the hell is an emo-freak?_

_**Someone who thinks the world and life sucks, and wants to die.**_

_Someone who thinks the world and life sucks, and wants to die? Hmm, reminds me of Kaname Tosen._

"I thought that I had throughly masked my spiritual pressure. Apparently I was mistaken."

Enishi was truly surprised. He had let down his guard. **"Sorry, was that out loud?"** he asked.

Tosen angled his head before drawing Suzimushi. "I was sent to eliminate any intruders. For the sake of peace, you must be eliminated."

Enishi casually shrugged. **"I would have thought"** he breathed in a voice heavily laced with sarcasm. **"that a captain or former captain of Soul Society other than Kenpachi Zaraki would know when they are completely outmatched. Apparently, the quality of Ninth Division captains has gone down since my lieutenant took my place."**

Tosen didn't react visibly to this. "Be that as it may, you must be eliminated."

**"This is getting repetitive. Senbon no Hy­­oro."**

Considerably more than a thousand icy needles formed in the air before barraging the exact point that Tosen was standing at, and defeating the purpose of the name of the attack due to the sheer number of needles. _**Oh I get it, you're just pissed about something, aren't you?**_

**"What gave it away?"** Enishi muttered as he turned to where Tosen had escaped to and lunged forward in a thrust with his spear-

***

Sayu, to Soifon's dismay, was currently taking the chance to get reacquainted with Soul Society. This amounted to essentially saying hi to all the captains in a captains' meeting and threatening Captain Kyouraku, whose eyes widened comically when he saw her. Remnants of old wounds began throbbing sympathetically while he involuntarily let out a whimper. While Nanao looked at him questioningly, Sayu wore a sadistic grin behind her helmet.

"Nice to see you remember me, Shunsui-kun. I just hope you also remember what happens if I find you ten feet from me without my permission..."

The first (and only) time that he had gotten that close to her, she had introduced him to Susannoo, blade of the god of storms, the hard way. It had taken Unohana roughly six weeks to patch him back up when that happened.

While Kyouraku sputtered incoherently, Nanao's face brightened. Here was a threat that could curtail his skirt-chasing ways for good, if she played her cards right.

Sayu turned and greeted a faintly smiling Captain Ukitake before she saw Soifon.

"Hey there. Remember how you got your ass handed to you along with Yoruichi-teme?" Soifon unsheathed and released even faster than Byakuya before attacking in blind rage. "Too slow, bitch," Sayu teased while grabbing Suzemebachi and neutralizing her strike.

With an inarticulate snarl, Soifon prepared to yank free and attack once again before she was stopped by, if not a blast then a wave, of reiatsu.

"Soifon-taicho, calm yourself. Attacking allies is not conduct befitting a person of your standing."

Sayu smiled in recognition, not that anyone could have seen it. "Long time no see, old man."

The captain-general had served as Enishi's, Raiden's and her mentor before their own captain had taken them in. To a greater extent, the wizened captain had also taught Kuromaru many of the things he taught his own students. Even someone like herself had nothing but the greatest respect for him. _Well, not anymore though,_ she corrected herself. The old man garnered significantly less respect from herself, her brothers and her surrogate father after allowing them to be sealed away in Hell without the benefit of their powers.

"Hanabusa Sayu, kindly explain why it is you are here."

"What? Can't an old captain drop by just to say hi?"

"Hanabusa-taicho…"

"Ah ah ah, I'm not a captain anymore. _You_ saw to that, old man."

Kyouraku, Ukitake and Unohana flinched slightly. _Still not forgiven, I see_.

"Now is not the time for this infighting," Yamamoto continued. "All worlds are at risk from Aizen's scheme to gain the power of the Royal Family."

"So what?"

"Did you come here to help us as an ally?"

"Why should we be your allies? Do you think we're just going to put aside our differences after what you did?" Sayu demanded with all seriousness.

"How dare you-"

"Komamura-taicho, let it be," Captain Yamamoto waved it off. "That is neither here nor there. You escaped, and you appear to be working against Aizen as well-"

"I'm going to make this clear, old man. The only reason that we are doing what we are doing now is because it doesn't serve our interests if Aizen gains power either. The situation is, what did Enishi say? Oh yes. "The enemy of my enemy is my collaborator." We are only collaborators for the time being."

"You are also former captains-"

"-who owe _you_ no loyalty after you betrayed our trust!"

"I had no choice!" the soutaicho thundered. "You know as well as I that the word of Central 46 is law, and that the Thirteen Court Guards are duty bound to carry out their decrees-"

"You did have a choice!" Sayu hissed back. "You could have refused to cooperate! It was _you_ who taught Shunsui, Jushiro, Retsu-chan and the captain that we must decide for ourselves what justice is! You, who are the strongest shinigami, against the old men who comprised the council. Old men who never had lifted a blade, and never will thanks to the traitors. And you have the gall to say that you had no choice! If you won't own up to _your_ choices and decisions, I don't see how we should honor a past allegiance to you. Besides, I only came on the captain's orders. He told me to tell you that in two weeks, he will forcibly stabilize the Dangai and allow events to proceed according to his plans. He also told me to warn you that you'll get what's coming to you, and it won't be nice."

"You would dare to threaten Soul Society that way?"

"That's not a threat. It is informing you of imminent events. That is the only reason I am here, and I could care less what you think."

There was silence while everyone present processed her words.

"And what is coming?"

Sayu turned her eyes back on the captain-general. "Something that you set in motion, twenty-three years ago."

***

Ichigo wove through yet another wall of countless blows from Raiden as he struggled to learn when to dodge and (painfully) when to block.

"No!" Raiden growled as Ichigo ducked to the side while shunting away a punch that came nowhere near him in the first place. "If it isn't aimed directly at your chest, don't try deflecting it! You just leave yourself open to attack that way!" he added as he rammed an open left palm under Ichigo's chin.

"Gah-" Ichigo flipped to regain his posture, just in time for Raiden to knock his feet from under him.

"Your recovery time is too much! You need to be able to instantly regain control of yourself after a strike like that!" Raiden criticized as he rained punch after punch after kick on Ichigo's pitiful defense, which crumbled soon afterward.

"Alright that's enough," Raiden said. "Let's take a break."

Ichigo didn't need to be told twice. He collapsed on the ground and struggled to bring air back into his lungs. "You know," he gasped. "I've been wondering, why do you guys wear armor?"

"For several reasons, Kurosaki. One, it can deny our opponents vital information. Two, it can be used as a tool of intimidation. And three, it is not for protection. It restricts the usage of our maximum power level, so we can train and evade detection from our enemies. Although, we really don't have any enemies, serious ones anyway."

"Why?"

Raiden snorted. "What idiot other than you would be stupid enough to challenge us? Be serious Kurosaki."

"Hey!"

**Ya know, he's got ya there, partner. Ya were bein' pretty fucking stupid when you attacked his captain-**

"Screw you!" Ichigo grumbled back as his hollow smirked at him.

"Huh, you say something Kurosaki?"

"My damn hollow."

**Hey!**

"But why don't you fight at full power?" Ichigo wondered while ignoring the tirade that his hollow was throwing.

"Ya know what, you're an idiot Kurosaki, but we already knew that. If we fought at full power all the time, we would probably destroy the Real World. Besides, you shouldn't show off your power. You should hide it unless you really need it; at least, that's what the captain says."

Ichigo snorted. "You don't seem like the type who hides their power if you _like_ fighting Kenpachi."

"Which? The current one? You're right, I don't like to hide my power, but I do want to get stronger, and fighting under a limiter helps out in that department."

"How?"

"I'll have Enishi explain later, when he gets back. Break's over! Let's get back to training!"

***

The battlefield didn't look like a desert anymore, but more like a forest of icy trees bordering a massive plain of ice that was dotted with black reishi arrows. Time and time again, Tosen and Enishi clashed. Time and time again, Tosen was forced to give ground by the sheer strength of his predecessor. Enishi, meanwhile, was tiring of playing cat-and-mouse.

**"This is getting old, and you're not getting any closer to beating me. I would advise that you call upon your bankai, Tosen Kaname!"**

Tosen held up his zanpaku-to in a salute, before briefly spinning in on the ring protruding from his hilt and then expanding it so that it was as wide across as he was tall.

"Bankai!" Ten rings formed and then locked themselves into a dome around the two. "Suzimushi, Suishiki, Enma Korogi!"

Enishi was seemingly plunged into darkness, while Tosen readied himself. "For the sake of peace, you will be eliminated!"

**So how was it? Please review! And currently, the vote is 1 person for Raiden having a purely flame-based zanpaku-to, and 1 for a flame and lightning based zanpakuto.**


	15. Chapter 14

**Okay, you know what, screw the weekly updates. I'll just post whenever I can.**

Chapter Fourteen: Blind man's bluff

"Yoruichi-sama?" Yoruichi turned to address the speaker, the short raven-haired midget. "Could you teach me to become stronger?"

"I suppose I could, but I don't know what good that would do if little Byakuya keeps you away from the front lines and any battles like that."

"But I want to help!" Rukia didn't add the _who_ that she really wanted to help. Yoruichi still got the gist.

"Hold up! I didn't say that I wouldn't train you. I only said that I don't see much use in it."

"…so you will help me?"

Yoruichi sighed. "You're about as dense as he is. Yes, I will train you, but I believe it would be worth my time if I knew you were going to make use of my training. Although," she considered. "you do tend to chase after him to help him regardless of your standing orders, so forget what I said. Don't think that I'm going to be easy on you," she warned.

Rukia could care less about that. She was tired of being the odd one out, the liability. While Ichigo and company actually _did_ things, she was the weak point that their enemies seemed to attack. This was going to change things, she swore to herself.

***

"Well, this is it, Namikawa-taicho. This" Tosen gestured around him. "is my bankai."

The familiar black dome with ten rings and symbols surrounded the two combatants. Tosen kept his blind gaze on Enishi, wary of anything even though the other renegade captain was bereft of sight, hearing, smell, and spiritual detection. Kenpachi Zaraki, the monstrous berserker captain, had taught him a lesson from his humiliating defeat. Never, even when you have complete control over your opponent, let your guard down.

Enishi, meanwhile, smirked to himself underneath his mask. Tosen Kaname had no idea who he was messing with.

"What do you think of it? I doubt that you could have imagined such a sight," Tosen continued in an exact repeat of the words he told Kenpachi while he approached. "although, you probably can't see anything right now…" he trailed off as he walked straight past the ice master, before whirling around and delivering a vertical sword strike downward.

**KLANG!**

_What?_ Enishi had somehow blocked the blow with his spear. _He-_

**"Actually, I can imagine such a sight,"** Enishi replied. **"and guess what? I'm not impressed."** He turned around, still holding the spear in a guard position, to face Tosen's shocked visage.

"How did you-"

**"-block your strike? Heh. Your bankai may deprive me of sight, sound, smell and the ability to detect spiritual pressure, but it doesn't strip away all of my senses."** Tosen disengaged and took several steps back just to be safe.

_Is it the same as how Zaraki bested me? I still haven't been able to figure out-_

**"Hah! You think that I would do the same thing as that berserker? You sorely misjudge me, Tosen Kaname."**

_What?! Did he read my mind?!_

**"No I didn't read your mind, Tosen. It appears that your lips moving, and I have trained myself to read every movement that my opponents make."**

"How can you read my lips when my bankai-"

**"You may have eliminated my ability to detect **_**your**_** spiritual pressure, but I can still detect my own energy. I simply emit clouds of it into the surrounding area, and read the contours of objects within the cloud. Through this, I can read your lips, your swings, and your footwork. Your bankai is a mere nuisance to me this way."**

"Impossible! Suzumushi cuts off all of the senses save touch!"

**"Impossible, eh? Well then, explain this!"**

Enishi charged in a powerful thrust that Tosen desperately sidestepped before shunpoing away. He reappeared several tens of feet away when Enishi reappeared behind him, bringing down the spear in a powerful slice that shattered the ice covering the ground, right where Tosen had been before he whirled around and took a step back. Enishi proceeded to attack the beleaguered former captain, who struggled to parry every blow, and only managed because Enishi was merely toying with him. Suddenly, he jumped high into the air before pointing his spearhead down and ramming it into the ground. A massive explosion of ice engulfed the entire dome and blasted Tosen into the distance, toward Las Noches. Enishi stood up, yanked the spear from the ground, and dusted himself off while Enma Korogi collapsed. **"Now that that's been taken care of, I should get going,"** he said to himself as he turned to open a garganta and enter its chaotic depths.

***

"Hey, Shinji, where's Berry-tan?" a hyper-inquisitive former vice-captain asked.

"...Kensei, tell her already," Shinji was millimeters away from strangling her.

"For the last fucking time, Mashiro, he doesn't know!!" Kensei exploded.

"Waaahhh! Kensei is mean!"

"SHUT UP!" he roared.

"You know," Love commented as he observed Kensei frantically searching for his earplugs. "if you want someone to stop, just ask nicely."

"Easy for you to say..." Shinji grumbled. "I don't know if Hiyori's ever going to stop using me as a punching bag, or a door mat-OW! Hey!"

"Oops, sorry! I thought your head was a footrest, Shinji!"

"Why you-" Shinji got up and began chasing her around the training grounds underneath the warehouse, while Love palmed his face and sighed.

"Anything?" he asked Lisa as he heard her footsteps behind him on the mini-plateau he sat on.

"I think that Ichigo is off training with someone else. I haven't seen the real him around his school, and I'm not detecting his energy around Urahara's place. Any chance that Ichigo is in Soul Society?"

"Can't say. We have to wait for Rose to get back."

"Yeah well, I'm back. So what are you two talking about?"

"Do you know where Ichigo is?" Love asked.

"Eh, I heard Kisuke talking about Kensei's old captain coming back to train him."

Rose might as well have set off a few flashbangs. Everyone froze; well, almost everyone. Shinji made a valiant attempt at freezing in a midair jump, and failed. "WHAT?!" he somehow screeched before he hit the ground.

Rose winced. "Jeez, Shinji. No need to yell so loud."

"Forget that, Takahashi-taicho is back?!"

"Hey, if you want proof, talk to Kisuke. I'm just telling you what I heard."

"Did you hear about anyone else?" Shinji inquired.

"Yeah, I also heard that your old captain beat the crap out of Yoruichi and her replacement."

"Hah! Figures."

"Shinji," Love began. "Those four were supposed to be sealed. 9 captains, 12 former captains turned Royal Guard and the use of the King's Seal locked them away in hell, and now they're back?"

"Hachi, any ideas?"

The large vaizard thought for a moment. "…any seal can be overcome with enough energy, but only if the energy is nearby. Since they were in another dimension, they couldn't break out that way. I would think that it would require the usage of another sealing artifact in order to create a new pathway back to this dimension."

"What kind of sealing artifact?"

"…well, my knowledge on that is sketchy because most of the information on the known powerful sealing artifacts was restricted to the Soutaicho. I believe that if the King's Seal was used as the key, then something at least as powerful would be required to reverse the process. Unfortunately, because I don't know the abilities or the power of the King's Seal, I cannot make any reliable estimate on how powerful it would have to be."

"Then we can forget about figuring out how they escaped. Our primary concern is that they are here, and apparently involved with Ichigo."

"Shinji…" Love said slowly. "why would they go after him?"

Shinji grimaced. "That's what I'm afraid of."

***

The only sounds were the rush of air, the clashing of blades, the sound of sandaled feet against the ground, and the occasional comment from Raiden.

"Good, very good. At least you try dodging every now and then."

Ichigo grunted in reply as he ducked under a slice before attempting a rising cutter. Raiden merely sidestepped to the left before bringing his axe in a sideways slash, which Ichigo barely ducked under before launching a counter of his own.

"Excellent! When you dodge, your opponent will have an opening for you to exploit!" Raiden praised him while stepping back to recover his balance.

"Like I didn't know…" Ichigo muttered, but Raiden was right. He hadn't realized just what a simple dodge would allow him. Not only would his opponent be left exposed, but dodging like this took less energy than blocking every single move. This would save him energy during a battle and even allow him to finish his opponents faster.

Of course, this would only be so for opponents within his power range, as Raiden brutally reminded him by using the flat side of his axe as a golf club, with Ichigo's face as the ball.

**WHECK! KRNCH!** "OW! Jeez! That broke my nose!"

"I'll fix that, right after the lesson! You should understand what happens when you aren't fast enough, or when you just don't see it coming."

"Bastard!" Ichigo hissed as he tried to ignore the pain as well as the blood streaming from his nose.

"Now who are you talking to, me or Raiden?" Enishi asked as he came into the room.

"Well, you look like you had fun," Raiden called while deflecting a strike from an enraged Ichigo. "Who did you run into?"

Enishi chuckled. "My lieutenant's replacement."

"Tosen?"

"Who else? Personally, I'm really disappointed with how bad captains nowadays have gotten."

"Really? 'Cause Rose's replacement wasn't dumb enough to try and fight me."

"Well that's Ichimaru Gin you are talking about, one of the prodigies. He wouldn't be likely to engage anyone in combat without knowing their basic capabilities."

"Do you guys have to talk like I'm not here?!" Ichigo's frustration was compounded by Raiden's apparent lack of attention and his broken nose.

"No, but I doubt that you could seriously fight Raiden and succeed in hurting him, so I don't feel any reluctance to make idle chatter with him while he trains you," Enishi threw back as Raiden knocked the large cleaver from Ichigo's hands with a careless underhanded upward slice. "And it would appear that you need a stronger grip, or better concentration, Kurosaki."

"Alright, that's enough for today Kurosaki," Raiden said while Ichigo retrieved his zanpaku-to. "Actually, I'm kinda surprised-"

"That's nothing new," Enishi stated deadpan behind his mask. Raiden threw his axe, which Enishi ducked, before it boomeranged back to him.

"Shut the fuck up! I'm kinda surprised that you got this far in just three days. I guess that what the captain said is true; you really do learn fast. Anyway, I said I'd have Enishi explain when he got back, and now he's back."

"You'd have me explain what?"

"Tell him how wearing restrictive armor helps us get stronger while I give him a nose job-"

"I wouldn't trust you for that, so _I'll_ fix his nose while explaining," Enishi retorted. "Now Kurosaki, when you first start out, you have only a bare fraction of your true power. Why? Because early on, your body cannot handle your full power. Only with time and experience can you unlock the rest. You have already reached your prime level of power, but you cannot use all of your power because you need to draw on the full depths of it. To achieve that, you would have to make it harder to naturally access the strength you normally use so that without such restraints, you can fully draw on all of your power and use it to devastating effect. Know this however: to draw on one-hundred percent of your power is near-impossible, and would likely be suicidal. While you would momentarily gain tremendous power, your body requires the use of _some_ energy to maintain itself, and to use up all of it would kill you. Fortunately, as I said, it is near-impossible; so I hardly think you are in any danger of doing that. As far as I know, only the captain is able to do it and for some reason, the normal rules do not apply to him."

"...so, by making it harder to use your energy, you make it easier to access more of it? Sounds kinda backwards."

Enishi and Raiden shared a look. _Dense as usual..._

**As much as I like how many people are either adding me to their favorites or this to their favorites, I would really appreciate it if you could review and just tell me either a few things I should fix or what I'm doing right. Please? I would like to know!**


	16. Chapter 15

**Okay, I think I'll just give up on asking for reviews. And I'm going to take the vote (or lack thereof) to mean that you readers want me to write the story however the hell I want, and give Raiden whatever kind of zanpaku-to I want. Oh well, new chapter, enjoy!**

Chapter Fifteen: Shattering Blaze

Raiden walked to the sub-basement to find Ichigo already up and waiting for him.

"So what do we do today?"

"Well, I'm going to teach you a special technique of mine. I didn't say anything yesterday because I don't want Enishi to know about it."

"What is it?" Ichigo inquired, his curiosity sufficiently piqued.

"Watch." Raiden released his axe and walked over to a support column. "Enishi hates it when I do this, but what the hell. He can prop the ceiling up himself." Amaterasu appeared to glow faintly before Raiden smashed the flat side against the pillar. A surprisingly loud crack shot through the room as the entire pillar shattered before the pieces ignited.

"Whoa!" Ichigo was surprised. "What was that?"

"This involves control, something I suck at, like you. I use my reiatsu, form it into a shell around my zanpaku-to, and then swing it. The shell breaks before the blade hits the object and removes any kinetic resistance while the blade shatters it. As an extra touch, I added the combustion effect. I call it Shattering Blaze, and that's what I'm going to teach you."

Ichigo's mind was already reeling at the implications. A move that could shatter anything? This would make it so much easier to beat his opponents.

"So how do you do it?"

***

Rukia panted from exhaustion before collapsing on the rocky ground. Yoruichi stood over her, sizing up her improvement.

"Are you finished yet? You'll never last in a serious battle."

"I'm…getting…better…aren't I?" Rukia wheezed from protesting lungs.

"You will have to get used to this on a regular basis, or else you won't be able to stand up to the same level of enemies that Ichigo regularly goes up against."

Rukia couldn't believe that Ichigo fought this way so often. How was he not exhausted after just ten minutes?!

"Don't worry,"Yoruichi said comfortingly. "Ichigo couldn't do this at the beginning either. You just need to build up your strength with experience."

Rukia nodded before trying and failing to get back on her feet. She merely flopped back on top of her blade. Yoruichi sighed.

"We'll continue this later, when you can actually stand," she stated over Rukia's feeble protests. "No buts. If you can't even get back up, you are well past your limit, and to continue further might kill you."

Rukia sighed, and fell into a blissful slumber while thinking _just you wait, Ichigo. I swear you won't have to worry about me anymore…_

***

Sayu stole into the Fifth Division headquarters, and slipped past the unfortunate seated members filling in for the incapacitated fukutaicho. She headed straight for Aizen's office while mentally going over all the times she had walked these corridors like she had owned the place, as captains are privileged to do. When she opened the door to his room, she took stock of the surroundings, careful to check for any traps and hidden areas before she ransacked the entire room, searching for what her captain really wanted. When she was done, she held up a stack of papers, all documenting the Hogyouku. She flipped through them, scanning, before selecting those with Aizen's own conclusions about the Hogyouku along with Urahara's notes that were stolen from him.

"So far so good," she murmured. But information on the Hogyouku wasn't the only thing Kuromaru wanted. He also wanted the complete archived files on the King's Seal. She thought long and hard. Although she had captain's clearance, it was likely to have been revoked, and information on the King's Seal was likely to be restricted to only the Soutaicho; although Kurotsuchi may have found a way to bypass that little problem.

Sayu considered. Kurotsuchi was an obsessive researcher and scientist, similar to Enishi. She was the one, however, who specialized in sealing and traps, and was only of moderate skill in hacking. The idea would likely only work if Kurotsuchi was the type to demand hard copies of all the information. He did seem to be the type who cared about accessability more than security. It was worth a shot.

She disappeared just in time before a delusional Hinamori Momo walked in, having heard some slight noises from the room. "Aizen-taicho?"

Sayu cursed to herself. Because that vice-captain had showed up, she hadn't had the time to put everything back! Oh well. If her idea worked and if she was fast enough, it wouldn't matter.

***

Nemu looked up from her work slightly. She thought that she sensed something on the edges of her attention, but couldn't quite determine what it was, and that disturbed her.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri had created her to be the perfect assistant, and was inwardly proud of her despite all of his cursings. He had made her highly survivable and easily "repaired." She was several times stronger, physically, than other vice-captains, served as a mini-archive on the go, and had nearly unparalleled sensing abilities. The latter was what concerned her at the moment. Her inability to classify this intrusion was disturbing because there were no known beings able to completely shield themselves from her.

As if to make a mockery of this belief, the signature, already unbelievably faint, completely vanished. Nemu narrowed her eyes as she stood up and moved away from her desk, ignoring her assistants' calls as she tried to pinpoint where it had been. Her eyes widened as she realized that it had been at Mayuri's private archives.

"Taicho, someone has gotten to your secret files."

"What?! How? And why didn't you report when you detected them?!"

"I'm sorry sir, but they evaded my attention completely."

Mayuri was silent. It was a testament to his confidence in Nemu's abilities that he would believe her without question when she sensed something. No one had ever evaded her senses before. Who-

"I believe I know who it is. Order the division to corner her."

"Sir?"

"I'm coming. Inform the Soutaicho that Hanabusa Sayu has attempted to steal sensitive information."

***

"Oh fuck..." Sayu breathed as the building alarms went off. _So much for getting out unnoticed._ This was a slightly bigger problem than sneaking documents from the Fifth. The Twelfth Division had many protective barriers around it, inside of which there was no way to open a Garganta. It was really just a slight problem in that she didn't want to spend any time explaining why she stole these files. But also, Kuromaru didn't want to completely alienate Soul Society, yet. That would just make things sooo much harder.

_Screw that, I'm not fighting them all now!_ Sayu threw stealth to the winds, drew her zanpaku-to and blasted a gaping hole through seventeen walls to the outside. She then literally blew through Akon and the other division members set to prevent her escape before vanishing into a garganta.

***

Ichigo gritted his teeth as he attempted yet again to split the stupid rock that he was currently hacking away at. He vaguely remembered what Raiden had said about how this would help:

_Flashback_

_"The first thing you will be doing, Kurosaki, is splitting this rock."_

_"...how will that help me?"_

_"This is no ordinary rock. It's made of pure reiatsu. The captain forced us to be able to split this damn thing before he would consider us ready for our Captaincy. This is a full percent of his power. You need to break this with a one-handed blow."_

_"What?!"_

_"You are not nearly physically strong enough to perform Shattering Blaze just yet. Do you think your opponent will give you time to attempt with two hands? You will have to perform it fast. Besides, if you can do it with one hand, you can weave the blow into a close exchange without much trouble. So, the first order of business, you have to break that with your zanpaku-to using only one hand, and no energy attacks. Only when you can do that will we move on to the next step."_

_Flashback end_

Ichigo lifted his zanpaku-to, gripping it far too tightly, and brought it down with a scream of rage. One instant later, that scream of rage was replaced by screeches of pain, as the shock from the blow made his entire right arm feel like it was breaking, teaching him the hard way that such a grip effectively melds his hand and blade together.

"AUGH! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck, FUCK!" he swore as he tried to get feeling back into his arm.

Raiden meanwhile, was having a laugh at Ichigo's misfortune while Enishi looked on disapprovingly.

"If I recall, you did the exact same thing, Raiden. You shouldn't be laughing."

"Heh, what's with you? I seem to remember you were laughing at me that day too."

"..."

"Oh come on! Lighten up a little! The world doesn't revolve around betrayal, at least, not all the time."

"...I will never understand how you can be so callous about that."

"Well, I know that they will pay and the captain will let them have it, and that's good enough for me."

"..."

"Yeesh, you used to be the lazy-ass and Sayu was the workaholic. Did you two swap personalities?"

"...I'm surprised that you aren't wholly affected by what happened."

"It's ancient history! Can't do anything about it now! Besides, I just live for a good fight."

"Heh, and you are the only one of us three who hasn't changed."

"Yeah yeah," Raiden waved it off. "So what do you think little Aizen is planning, other than the imminent takeover of the world?"

Enishi paused. "That's actually a good question. I don't know..."

***

Aizen sat on his throne, tracing back through his memories, or more properly, Ulquiorra's memories of his encounter with that boy. To be more precise, he was reviewing Ulquiorra's guesses and observations of Orihime's powers.

_Flashback_

Healing? _Ulquiorra asked himself. _No, this is something else, spatial distortion?

_"Heh, this girl is most unusual..."_

_Flashback end_

"Spatial distortion, a power that denies the will of the gods...interesting," Aizen spoke to himself, fingers laced together, deep in thought.

**By the way, does the name of that new move sound kinda corny? If it is, tell me some suggestions for what else to call it.**


	17. Chapter 16

**Hey, sorry I updated late, but my computer access at school was revoked for two weeks, so I'm just now posting. Anyway, enjoy!**

Chapter Sixteen: Second stage

The captains were convened in the hall again, and most were focused on an uncomfortable Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

"Kurotsuchi-taicho," Captain Yamamoto ground out. "you reported a disturbance on your division grounds in your private chambers. You informed us that Hanabusa Sayu was the infiltrator. You also said that she stole some information. What exactly?"

"Well, she stole the files I had on the King's Seal pertaining to its abilities and powers-"

"Kindly explain how such information came to be in your possession!"

"If I recall correctly, there has been some speculation about how she and the others managed to escape. I have been utilizing those files to determine those means." When the old captain merely nodded, he went on. "Thus far, I have determined several possibilities. The first method is that the seal master sabotaged the process. For example, instead of sending them to Hell, perhaps to Hueco Mundo. Another such example is deliberately making the seal very weak. A second possibility is that the King's Seal itself was insufficient in power or ability to permanently lock them away, and thus the seal was on a timer. A third pathway, and this one is most likely, could be simply that when they regained their powers, the sheer amount of energy that they possessed combined with their prodigious skills was sufficient for them to open up a pathway back here."

"Kurotsuchi-taicho," Byakuya spoke up. "Thus far, we have only heard about the King's Seal and its role in the process. What about its powers?"

Kurotsuchi glanced at the Soutaicho, who cleared his throat. "We will not discuss that at this time. Rest assured, the abilities of the King's Seal are not what allowed it to fail."

"Indeed," Kurotsuchi continued. "Remember that the sealing process consumed vast amounts of reiatsu from nine of us here along with that of the twelve Royal Guards. The result was only as good as the amount of energy poured into the seal, and it appears that it was not enough. Of course, this is assuming that what little we know of the Hell realm is true..."

"So we really don't know how they escaped, do we?" Soifon demanded.

"I didn't say that!" Kurotsuchi snapped.

"But you don't know for sure."

"No. My information is not as complete as I would like, so I am forced to rely on base assumptions. Beyond that, we might as well attempt to ask the stars what happened."

"...so we are still no closer to knowing the truth than before..." Ukitake mused.

"Enough! While I have no doubt that determining their means of escape will be most informative, we have more pressing concerns," Captain Yamamoto spoke sharply. "Kuromaru, for good or for ill, has gained the information on the King's Seal, and he is planning to stabilize the Dangai in ten days. We must be prepared for any moves on the part of Aizen and Kuromaru."

"Yama-ji," Kyouraku piped in. "you can hardly blame him for wanting such information after we used it against him like that-"

"That information should not have gotten into the hands of an enemy of Soul Society-"

"We made him one! After everything he did for us, we stabbed him in the back, just like Sayu-chan said!"

"That is neither here nor there. Might I remind you, Shunsui, that he decides who may pass between dimensions? What's to say that he allows Aizen to come to our doorstep, or even worse: Karakura, all the while preventing us from coming out to face him? We cannot trust his intentions given the past and his current position, and we certainly cannot trust that he will not use the information about the King's Seal to harm Soul Society or the Royal Family!"

"Maa, Soutaicho," Kurotsuchi chimed in. "if you don't mind, I still have to finalize our preparations to meet Aizen should he attempt to sacrifice Karakura Town. I should like to return to them."

"Go then. The rest of you, prepare your divisions as well."

***

Sayu screamed in rage, not that anyone was paying attention. Kuromaru had not been happy that she had been noticed, or that she had drawn such attention to his movements. His way of disciplining her had been to strip her (temporarily) of the ability to make gargantas, bind almost all of her power, and then set a few Kototsus chasing after her through the Dangai. She swore that she was going to at the very least shatter his helmet the next time she tried to spar with him.

Kuromaru, meanwhile, was completely ignoring Sayu's predicament. While waiting for her to find him in the Dangai, he thumbed through the pages she had gathered. The information on the King's Seal, surpsingly, was nothing new. He had discovered all of this when they had made their escape. The Hogyouku however was...very interesting. He could easily see why Aizen had made such pains to gain it, though the idiot was too short-sighted to use it properly. Kuromaru smiled slightly behind his domed helmet. Perhaps Aizen couldn't make proper use of it, but _he_ certainly could.

***

Ichigo raised his arm and brought it down with a blow that easily split the damn rock, along with the ground underneath. _Finally! I broke the stupid thing! Now where's Raiden?_

"Heh, took you long enough," Raiden walked over, smirking behind his helmet. Ichigo glared at him.

"Screw you."

"You've got guts, kid; but we already saw that when you stupidly challenged the captain. I just hope you don't fall into the category of 'all brawn and no brain.' " Raiden angled his head as Zangetsu passed through the space his head had just vacated, trailing the long wrapping with the other end in Ichigo's hand. "Yeesh, I take that back. I hope you don't go all serious and emo like Enishi-" Raiden suddenly disappeared as a dragon of ice erupted from the ground he had been standing on. "Aw come on! You guys can't take jokes?" Enishi's answer was to turn the dragon to a cloud of countless ice needles and slam them into Raiden, who burst into flame and melted the ice.

"Heh, don't you have someplace you need to be?"

Enishi's signature vanished leaving Raiden alone with an agitated Ichigo.

"Took long enough. Okay kid, this should be easy enough for you if you got past Enishi's lessons. Pump some reiatsu into your blade. Actually, scratch that. Get it out of the wall and in back your hand, and _then_ add energy to it." _Wouldn't want to destroy the foundations..._

Ichigo yanked his zanpaku-to back towards himself before pushing in some energy.

"Okay, you don't need a whole lot. All you do now is extend it past the physical limits of your blade and form a kind of second skin with it."

Ichigo tried and surprisingly succeeded. Raiden grudgingly admitted that Enishi was a superb teacher of control.

"Okay, now try it out on this." Raiden held out another rock. Ichigo growled, took it, placed it on the ground and then swung with all his might.

There was a flash of light as the energy skin made contact and compressed. Ichigo had given it too much energy, and the barrier was too thick to break. Instead, the energy compressed until it blew up in Ichigo's face.

"A-hah-eh-hah-eh-hah! Geyah! What the hell?!" Ichigo coughed.

"Like I said, you don't need a whole lot of energy. If there's too much, the thing won't shatter, and the energy just blows up. Then again, this is another thing of two strikes in one blow, so I guess you can have some variation. Anyway, you need to use less, otherwise you won't be able to shatter what you hit. I suppose I kinda forgot to tell you about that..."

_Bastard!_ Ichigo glared at him before turning back to his new task.

***

If Rukia had gotten anything other than a new reason to fight from that strawberry moron, she seemed to have gotten his amazingly fast development rate. Whereas only yesterday she hadn't lasted twenty minutes, Yoruichi had been training her for the past hour, and she still could keep going.

"You've really improved!" Yoruichi called as she fired another blast of energy at the diminuitive shinigami.

Rukia didn't acknowledge with anything more than a grunt. Despite the fact that yes she was indeed able to take it, it wasn't easy, and any lapse of concentration at this point carried a heavy toll that she would rather not pay.

Too bad she ended up doing so anyway. Yoruichi glanced toward the ladder to Urahara's shop and then did a double take. Curious, Rukia turned to see as well and immediately felt chills run down her spine. Unfortunately for her, Yoruichi had been about to attack with another blast, and she inadvertently fired it. Rukia saw it coming too late and took the full blast to the chest.

Enishi shook his head at the display. And this was the person he was ordered to train? Why the captain had told him to do so was beyond him, and he had long ago stopped attempting to figure out the inner workings of Kuromaru's mind.

"Well, I can see from what just happened that you haven't nailed in the lesson of never letting your guard down."

Yoruichi looked at Rukia and then raced over. "Are you alright?"

Rukia grimaced in pain. "I-I think so."

"Hn, you would definitely be alright if you had given your full attention to her, midget."

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET?!" Rukia screamed at him. "YOU'RE JUST HALF A HEAD TALLER THAN ME!"

"I'm short. If you are shorter than me, you are a midget. End of discussion. I'm here to train you as you are obviously in need of it," Enishi gestured at her.

Yoruichi narrowed her eyes. "And why are you offering?"

Enishi shrugged. "Ask the captain if you want, and if you can negotiate the Dangai at the moment. I don't know why. I'm just following orders, and my orders were to "bring the Kuchiki _midget_ up to an acceptable level." "

Rukia seethed while Yoruichi debated whether to allow this. Finally...

"How do I know that you don't have any plans of your own?"

"How do _I_ know that you and the other former shinigami along with Soul Society won't try a repeat of twenty-three years ago?" Enishi shot back.

Yoruichi winced inwardly while responding with a wry twist of her lips. "Touché. Well, it's Rukia's decision."

Rukia considered. The rat-bastard toyed with her emotions, and she had no respect for him other than the fact that he existed and was a legendary former captain. However, if he was offering to train her, why not go along? It wouldn't hurt her in anyway, and he wouldn't gain anything significant, or so she thought.

"Fine, just as long as I don't need Ichigo to protect me anymore. I'm just tired of being the weak point."

Enishi smiled sadly behind his helmet. He could remember hearing the same thing from Sayu when he had eavedropped on her well over a century ago.

**Please review!**


	18. Chapter 17

**Sorry it took so long to update, but I had midterm exams to study for. Enjoy!**

Chapter Seventeen: Training

Ichigo swung Zangetsu down at the ground and pulverized it instead of merely breaking it.

"Good job," Raiden applauded. "You've mastered the energy shell, but now you have to learn how to do the third blow-"

"I won't bother asking what you are teaching him because that's not my purpose," Enishi cut in as he appeared out of nowhere. "I need his help to train the Kuchiki."

"You want me to help train Rukia?"

"Correct."

"Hey I'm still working with him-" Raiden protested.

"I'm well aware of that, Raiden. There is a technique that will allow both for him to help me, and for you to continue training him."

"What are you-oh, _that._"

Enishi gestured. "My doppleganger will be here soon, so let's get this over with. Come here Kurosaki."

Bewildered, Ichigo nonetheless complied. Enishi raised a glowing hand. "Just so you know, you will continue your training with Raiden in your inner world while I make use of your hollow to train your friend."

"What?! Hey come on-"

"End of discussion."

Enishi slammed his palm across Ichigo's forehead and a seal appeared. Ichigo's body spasmed as thick white fluid erupted from his mouth, nose and eyes, rolling over his body and giving him the appearance of a lizard-like hollow. Raiden and Enishi suddenly heard sounds echoing from the hallway behind them and immediately vanished from sight.

***

As the darkness that surrounded him cleared, Ichigo discovered that he was inside his inner world, with Raiden standing on the skyscraper.

"What the hell! How did you get in here?!"

"Trade secret. Not telling you, so ask the captain. Anyway, while your hollow is teach-I mean _torturing_ your friend out there, I will be teaching you the third part of the move, the energy attack. Now here's what I want you to do-"

"Wait a minute! Torturing who?!"

Raiden shook his helmet. "I thought it would have been obvious. Your Kuchiki friend." Raiden stuck out his right hand, caught an enraged Ichigo by the throat and slammed him against the side of the skyscraper. "Cool it, kid. Your friend has to learn how to deal with past experiences, and this is the only way she can. Besides, you can't do anything until Enishi breaks the seal, so you might as well focus on training."

Ichigo growled as he got back up.

"Yeah yeah, real scary, Kurosaki. Now, here's what I want you to do..."

***

"-now with your training, it's time to see if you are strong enough to last in a serious battle," the fake Enishi said.

"What do you mean?"

"Quite simply, Kuchiki Rukia, we are going to pit you against the hardest opponent yet for you to face." The doppleganger opened the door to the sub basement level so that Rukia could see inside. There stood a hollow with familiar orange hair.

Rukia was at a loss. "What is that? Who am I fighting?!"

"You can't tell? Perhaps this shall make things easier." The fake Enishi blurred into existence next to the hollow, grabbed the mask and yanked it off. When he did, the hollow's body shattered leaving behind a uniform that was the exact same color as the skin. As the replacement vanished, Rukia was abruptly overwhelmed in terror as the photo-negative of Ichigo looked at her and sneered.

"**Well, I guess while the shinigami is away, the hollow will play! And I'll start with you!**"

"I-I-Ichigo?!"

"**Ichigo ain't here right now, little shinigami, so you'll just have to deal with me!**" the hollow grasped Zangetsu, raced forward and attacked. Hidden away, Enishi was pleased that the Kuchiki hadn't been too overcome by emotion to raise her defenses. The display back when he'd toyed with her before had been absolutely disgusting and he was glad she was now bereft of that habit.

Rukia ducked backward from a vicious swing while trying (without success) to wake the real Ichigo.

"**How many fucking times do I have to say this? Ichigo ain't here! It's just me!**"

"You can't-Ichigo wouldn't let you-"

"**Who said he let me?**" The hollow leered. "**What if he was just in the way?**"

Rukia's eyes filled with tears. "YOU MONSTER!" she screamed as she lunged at the hollow, actually forcing him to guard with the ridiculously large cleaver.

"**Heh, so the idiot is precious to you, eh? I wonder why…**" The hollow smirked knowingly at Rukia as he carelessly deflected her frenzied blows.

"GIVE HIM BACK!!!!" In a sudden display that genuinely surprised the hollow, Rukia swung her blade down with enough force to almost tear the cleaver from his hands.

Enishi whistled. _Hell hath no fury like woman scorned, save woman desperate…_

***

Ulquiorra took a moment to process Aizen's plan. "…I see. So you know or suspect what her abilities are, Aizen-sama?"

"I believe that her powers will be most useful to accelerating our plans."

"I understand, but how shall we summon her here? The Gargantas are too unstable for us to traverse."

"In due time, they will come down. I suspect that Kuromaru-taicho is the one responsible, and he bears little love for Soul Society. He did not erect this barrier to protect them, but rather to prevent us from carrying out our plans."

"Then why would the barrier come down eventually?"

"That is what perturbs me. If we were his principal concern, he would have dealt with us personally. Instead, he allowed us to fester in inaction due to his barrier. Perhaps he has decided that only Soul Society will face us. Whatever the truth may be, he will eventually let it down, and we can move from there."

"…and may I ask why you have told me, but not the others?"

"I am placing you in charge. Gather whomever you need, and initiated the plan the moment the Gargantas stabilize."

"Hai, Aizen-sama."

***

Raiden was even more of a taskmaster in Ichigo's inner world. When he demanded a reason in between gasps, Raiden simply replied "It's your inner world. Anything you want to happen here will happen. You don't have to be tired, you just want to be."

"The hell I do!"

"Have it your way…"

Ichigo swore that he was going to do Shattering Blaze on this irritating prick the second he deemed the technique satisfactory. But that was a problem. For him, creating the energy shell was no problem. The issue was that if he tried to do anything else while maintaining the fragile layer, the energy imploded. He had learned this the hard way when the layer blew up when he was trying to build up a Getsuga Tensho. As Raiden looked on in casual disinterest, Ichigo gathered his energy once more and then attempted to split it into two parts. He got as far as the energy shell when his control wavered and a new dust cloud surrounded him, courtesy of the shell blowing up once again.

"Oh fuck this!" he snarled as he forced an enormous amount of energy into his blade, formed the shell and then simply slammed the edge straight into the skyscraper.

The explosion was tremendous. It would have been an understatement to say that the building was obliterated. More like it was demolecularized from the two simultaneous physical blows and then blasted apart by the wave-like Getsuga Tensho. Raiden's eyebrows shot up behind his helmet while Ichigo was sent backward several tens of meters from the backlash to land ignobly on his ass. Both stared at the massive hole in the "ground," the latter with a great deal of disbelief. "Jeez…"

Raiden cleared his throat. "A little overdone, and I can't believe that I just said that because I do that all the time, but well executed. Now do it again, and try to rein in your energy. Yeah, that's about right…"

**And by the way, do I have to beg and plead for a few reviews again? Because I would really rather keep my dignity. Review please?!**


	19. Chapter 18

**I had time today, so enjoy the new chapter!**

Chapter 18: Pain

On the whole, Enishi thought, perhaps he had been too quick to congratulate Rukia on her performance. While initially she kept her guard up enough to avoid being killed outright by an opportunistic hollow Ichigo, time had worn her down and she regressed to the same tearful wreck that she was now. The only reason that the hollow hadn't already killed her was because he knew his purpose was only to inflict the same kind of trauma she had previously suffered so she could learn to get over it. Well, he amended, that and the fact that the hollow was too disgusted with her behavior to consider her worth killing.

"**Tch, yer pathetic, shinigami!**" the hollow shook his head while laying the cleaver over his shoulders. "**Shut it with that annoying whining already!**"

Rukia didn't answer. She simply continued to stand there, her head bowed, tears flowing and sobs wrenching themselves from her chest, her loose grip on her blade the only thing keeping the hilt from joining the tip of her zanpaku-to on the ground.

"Wow," Sayu said from where she suddenly appeared behind Enishi. "I thought you were pulling my leg. That _is_ pathetic."

"What kept you? You were supposed to be back a while ago." Sayu growled.

"I got caught while sneaking out of the Twelfth division, so the captain trapped me in the Dangai and sent a few cleaners after me!"

"Again? When will you ever learn..."

**SHRAK!**

Several wide gashes appeared on Enishi, who turned into a fractured ice statue while the real one emerged from behind Sayu. "Touchy today, aren't you?"

"Shut up," Sayu snapped before turning back to Rukia and the hollow. Enishi sighed and walked past her. "What are you doing?"

"Well, since it is fairly obvious that Kuchiki won't be improving at this point, letting Kurosaki's hollow continue to torture her is pointless, enjoyable though it may be. I'm breaking the seal." With that, he blurred into existence in front of the hollow. "Time's up. I would imagine that you would find verbally abusing Kurosaki to be more of interest than this, in any case."

The hollow snorted. "**No, really! What gave you that idea?!**"

Enishi didn't answer. He simply slapped a glowing hand on the seal on the hollow's forehead.

***

Raiden and Ichigo were busy sparring. The reason being that Raiden wanted Ichigo to learn firsthand how to work the new move into a fight properly. True to form, Ichigo mastered the third stage so fast that Raiden was grumbling to himself about how he only took longer because he developed the move himself. Ichigo flew backward from a vicious blow, steadied himself and lunged forward again. Raiden casually neutrailzed the blow by sweeping his scimitar in front of himself before launching an immediate retaliatory strike. Ichigo ducked underneath and attempted an uppercut slash. To his surprise, the blade passed right through Raiden's guard.

"What the hell-"

"Hmph, it seems that Enishi is done using your hollow, so he broke the seal. Oh well, see you back in reality." Raiden vanished while Ichigo slowly faded from his inner world-

***

-to encounter a nasty surprise. When he next opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a broken Rukia sobbing in front of him.

"Rukia?!"

Rukia raised her head in utter disbelief, froze for several moments, and then threw herself into his surprised arms.

"Ichigo..." she whimpered.

"Uh...what happened? And why are you crying?"

She sniffed. "I-I thought that your hollow took over you-" her voice cracked.

Ichigo glared at Enishi, who shrugged apologetically. "It was a test, Kuchiki, and you failed. You were too overcome by your emotions in the end to continue fighting, and that is one of the worst things that can happen in a warrior."

Raiden and Sayu stood on the sidelines while Ichigo exploded. "A test?! Just what kind of sadists are you people?! You know just how hard my inner hollow is for her to deal with because she had to kill Shiba Kaien and you still forced her to see it happen again?! You know that this is painful for her and you still-" Ichigo was cut off as Raiden grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him up against one of the few remaining intact pillars.

"What do you know about pain? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO LECTURE US ABOUT PAIN?!?!" Raiden roared in his face.

"Raiden-" Enishi cautioned.

"Shut up Enishi! JUST BECAUSE YOU LOST YOUR MOTHER AND ARE THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR LEADING HER TO HER DEATH, YOU THINK YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT WHAT PAIN REALLY IS? _WE_ WERE BRANDED AS CRIMINALS DESPITE ALL THE TIME WE SERVED SOUL SOCIETY FAITHFULLY JUST BECAUSE OF SOMETHING WE HAD NO CONTROL OVER!! THE PAIN YOU TWO LITTLE SHITS WENT THROUGH IS NOTHING! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE CALLED MONSTERS FOR YOUR ENTIRE SAD LIFE! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE CALLED TRAITOR BY THE ORGANIZATION YOU SERVE FOR TWENTY YEARS!" His voice changed to a whisper infinitely more dangerous than a scream. "You think you know what pain is? I'd be happy to give you a firsthand experience-"

"RAIDEN!" Enishi yelled. Raiden looked over, met his gaze, sighed and released his grip. As Ichigo fell to the ground, Raiden turned and walked out of the room, utterly destroying the door on the way out

. Enishi turned to face Ichigo. "Kurosaki, I strongly advise for your own sake that you do not speak of that again, because the next time you do so, I will be the one who teaches you what pain really is." Then he too left the room.

***

Raiden made it exactly fifty-three steps out the front door of the hideout, with Enishi trailing behind him, before he smashed his fist into an abandoned apartment building. A spiderweb of cracks spread outward from the impact point and covered the whole building. Thirty seconds later, it collapsed.

"Calm yourself, Raiden," Enishi admonished.

Raiden stood exactly where he had been when he punched the building, his fists trembling. "He has no fucking idea what we've been through-"

"Precisely. He has no idea. He can only judge based on his own experiences, so of course he would be wrong."

"Are you defending him?!"

"I'm merely explaining why I didn't send him to meet his maker myself. He didn't know that he crossed a line, but now he does."

_"Haarrrrrrrraaaahhhhh…"_

"I'm going to assume that growling means you aren't satisfied. Remember that Sayu is going to be training him during the last week."

Raiden looked over.

"Also, she will be training him in how to work together with his hollow. Is that a sufficiently pain-filled future for you?"

Raiden simply grinned behind his helmet.

***

Renji looked around Urahara's shop as he took a short break from training Chad. "Where the hell is Rukia? I haven't seen her for two days…"

"Looking for something, Abarai?" he turned to face the speaker, a semi-serious looking Yoruichi.

"I'm just wondering where Rukia is."

Yoruichi frowned. She had been hoping to forestall this until Rukia actually returned. "She's training right now, so don't worry about it."

Renji didn't pay attention to the last part. The frown on her face screamed out "red alert." "Training with who?"

"…"

"With them?! Youruichi-san, how could you let that happen? You know they'll do to her? They'll torture her, especially about her past!"

"Abarai, it's all for the best. If she wants to get stronger, she will have to face it anyway-"

Yoruichi might as well have tried to cuff him with a paper chain for all the good justifying herself did. Renji disappeared at a speed that rivaled her own in her prime. She sighed. _So much for trying to tell him the right way…_

***

Sayu looked from a shell-shocked Ichigo to a crumpled Rukia, sighed, and then picked up the latter and moved her away.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" She ignored Ichigo's protests. Instead, she concentrated on placing a seal on Rukia's forehead before she pressed her thumb, forefinger and middle finger on a triangular rune. Rukia's body went completely limp, so she laid her on the ground and walked back over.

"What did you just do?"

"Something Enishi will thank me for later, kid. Now, ignoring her, let's get cracking with your training, shall we?"

Ichigo painfully stood up. Raiden had given him quite a bruise with his monstrous strength when he slammed him up against the pillar. "Ow…"

"Kid, when I'm done with you, that's gonna be small potatoes compared to how you'll feel then."

Ichigo winced. He didn't even want to know what this was going to be like. "So what are you training me in? Speed?"

Sayu barked out a laugh. "Hah! As if! You don't need me to train and get faster. You can do that on your own, or with my old rival. No, I'm teaching you how to use your hollow powers."

Ichigo frowned. "You mean how to use my mask?"

"Nope. I mean how to use your hollow _form_ and all the powers that come with it."

Ichigo's eyes widened. "M-my hollow form?"

"Kinda slow, ain'tcha?" Ichigo scowled. "Yes, your hollow form. Now here's the thing…ah where did I put it?" Sayu rummaged around in the cloak she wore before she pulled out a packet of sheets. She scanned it and then looked up. "I can hardly read his handwriting…" she muttered. "When you use your mask, you have to keep a balance of hollow and shinigami energy, because your shinigami side is dominant and you only are forming your mask. It's a little different when you are using your hollow form. You have to shut off your shinigami energy completely because your hollow form uses hollow energy, obviously. Later, we'll worry about using zanpaku-to in that form, but for now, we'll just concentrate on getting you into your hollow form. So," Sayu's hand started glowing again. "see you in your inner world." She slammed her palm onto Ichigo's forehead. Ichigo keeled over and remained motionless. Five seconds later, Rukia began to give off piercing screams. Sayu breathed a sigh of relief. _Not a moment too soon…_

***

Inside Rukia's mind…

She was fighting against her memories, literally, as her opponent shifted between the possessed Kaien and hollow Ichigo.

"**Heh, why do you keep repeating my name, little girl? Am I that dear to you?**"

"**How many fucking times do I have to say this? Ichigo ain' here! It's just me!**"

"N-no! Kaien-dono! Ichigo! Come back!"

"**But I'm already here!**"

"**Too late! Yer strawberry friend ain't comin' back ever again!**"

"T-that's a lie! Y-you're not Kaien! A-a-and Ichigo swore he'd be there-"

"**Heh, looks like we gotta beat this into your head: I **_**am**_** Kaien**-"

"**-and Ichigo ain't ever coming back!**"

Rukia's scream was torn from the depths of her being. "NOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

***

Ichigo was confused, and so was his hollow. The former is not unusual, as that happens on a regular basis. The latter was out of the ordinary because the hollow usually had a very fast grip on not only practical knowledge, but the theory behind it as well. Both were confused however, when Sayu and an identical twin showed up in Ichigo's inner world and started pointing and gossiping about Ichigo's inner hollow.

"What the hell? I thought inner hollows were the exact opposite of a person."

"**Both of 'em are acting crazy, like they're twin sisters-ah fuck!**"

"What's wrong?"

"**Those two act like sisters, and they're both crazy and hyperactive. Do the math.**"

"Shiiiiiiit…"

Meanwhile…

"**He's kinda cute!**"

"I really don't think he's your type. He's just like Raiden, crazy fighting idiot."

"**But you've had your eye on him too!**"

Sayu blushed. **SWAT!** "He's my little brother! He's off limits!"

"**Awww…**"

Shaking her head in slight embarrassment, Sayu walked up to the two thoroughly confused males. "Ignoring my annoying dark side for now, let's get onto the lesson."

"**Hey! I'm not annoying…am I?**"

"Normally when you hollowfy, you and your hollow are in conflict. However, the same thing can be achieved when you are both actively working together and cooperating."

Ichigo accepted this, but his hollow protested. "**Hey! I only said I'd share power! Why the hell do I have to work together with this idiot?!**"

Sayu grinned so widely that her head seemed to split in half. "Because I'll sic my hollow on you. She's interested in you, so…" Sayu trailed off as Ichigo's hollow turned pal_er_ then normal. "Now that we've resolved that issue, you two will have to work together and cooperate in order to achieve balance. You will be in control while your hollow is busy maintaining your hollow form. But you will also have to shut off all of your shinigami energy. This will make it easier. Later, if there's time, we'll try for you using shinigami power while you're in your hollow form."

Ichigo nodded while his hollow snorted in annoyance. "**Fine. Let's get this over with.**"

**And by the way, just one last thing. For those of you who review, please tell me: on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being this story sucks ass, and 10 being this story would make the top cut, i.e. one of the best bleach fanfictions of all, what would you rate it? Please be honest.**


	20. Chapter 19

**Well, the new chapter is out, so enjoy. It's kinda weak, but what the hell.**

Chapter Nineteen: Hollow Forms

Ichigo frantically dodged as Sayu cratered the already-much-abused floor of the sub-basement.

"Hey! Come on!"

"You need to learn how to get into your hollow form under pressure, because not all of your opponents are going to be stupid enough to just stand there with open mouths while you take the time to change! Get that into your head and change already!"

"Well I would if you told me how to do it!"

Things were not going well. After Sayu explained (in a rapid fashion that left Ichigo saying "huh?") how the two were supposed to work together to bring out Ichigo's hollow form, she had immediately pulled him out of his inner world and attacked him, giving him little time to stand still and try. He had already learned the hard way not to stay still. The massive throbbing welts across his back served as a brutal reminder, courtesy of Sayu.

"You didn't have to hit so hard!"

"You learn well under pressure, kid! Think of it this way: either you change into a hollow, or you die!"

"You're insane!"

Sayu cackled "So what's new, kid?!"

***

Renji raced inside the building, searched frantically for the entrance to the lower level, bashed his head against the wall several times when he saw it lying in plain sight after looking for twenty minutes, and then he raced down and stopped dead. Forget that Ichigo was forced to fight against that mentally disturbed former captain. Rukia was screaming at the top of her lungs, eyes closed, and no one heard her but him.

"NOOOOOOO! NO! NO! NONONONONONONO!"

"Rukia!" Renji sprinted over, swept his longtime friend off the ground and cradled her small form against his body. "Rukia! Wake up! Wake up!"

"NOOOOOOO!"

"Rukia, wake up!" Not quite knowing how to calm an entranced hysterical female, Renji settled for squeezing her gently up against himself. Surprisingly, it worked. Rukia gasped and woke up, eyes wide and frantic, sweat rolling down her head.

"NO! KAIEN! ICHIGO!"

"Rukia, relax! It's me, Renji!"

To his relief, Rukia calmed down enough so that the bruises he had gained from trying to stop her spastic thrashing would have a chance of healing.

"Rukia, it's alright. I'm here, and Ichigo's over there doing something with Hanabusa-taicho. It's okay, everything is just fine."

Rukia just broke down and cried. "Oh Renji…it's all my fault that Kaien-dono died and Ichigo-"

"Hey! I thought we already went through this: no one is blaming you. Stop taking all the blame to yourself. Let it go. Besides, the idiot is right over there, and he looks just fine, so there's nothing to worry about-"

"-except for what I have in store for you next, Kuchiki." Renji whipped his head around while shielding Rukia from Enishi, who seemingly popped out of nowhere.

"You!"

"Me, and unless you have something else to do with her, I suggest you release her-"

"-so you can what? Torture her some more?!"

"Training is nothing but regimented torture, so yes."

"Training?! What kind of sadists are you-"

"Is anyone else experiencing déjà vu? I seem to remember hearing those words from someone else in this room. Oh well. I am under orders to train your diminuitive friend" Rukia was too caught up in emotion to notice the word "diminuitive." "and I intend to follow those orders to the letter. Granted, it seems to be a lost cause hoping that she will get over her old traumas, so I will simply train her in combat. Considering how similar our fighting styles are in nature, it shouldn't be too taxing for her. Now, I will not say this again. Release her."

Renji grudgingly complied, and Enishi stabbed an ice-cold hand on the back of Rukia's neck. It was comical how high she jumped despite being on her knees, and how high-pitched her shriek of surprise was.

"Snap out of it, Kuchiki," Enishi commanded while Rukia rubbed her neck, glaring resentfully. "Save the emotional part for _after_ our training. You will never get out from under the shadows of everyone else if you don't train. And besides, I thought you didn't want Ichigo to have to watch over you any more?" he added mockingly.

Rukia growled, but still trailed behind him as Enishi walked up saying "As the sub-basement is currently occupied, we will be using the recently-repaired main basement." Renji watched as they left, secretly sad that Rukia was back to her old self at the moment. He sort of enjoyed cradling her against his chest when she seemed vulnerable…

***

Ichigo finally managed to transform, partially. His right arm and a good section of his torso had become coated with the white gunk. Transforming while in the middle of a fight was extremely taxing, because it took all of his concentration to keep himself out of harms way while trying to keep firm control over his energy. Of course, it did help somewhat that his arm and the coated part of his chest was seemingly invulnerable to injury, so instead of dodging all the time, he tried to use that to block Sayu's wind and lightning attacks. Wind attacks: no problem. Lightning attacks: big mistake. Instead of crashing and dissapating, it connected and shocked him, as any other idiot could have foreseen.

"AHLLLLLLLLLLALALALALALALALALALA"

Sayu shook her head. _What a dense idiot, and you crushed on his hollow?_

_**What can I say? He's smarter than that, and good looking to boot.**_

_...I really think you should reconsider your taste in men._

_**It's your taste too! And shouldn't you still be attacking?**_

She fired another lighting blast and looked on with amusement as Ichigo continued to twitch. _I'm enjoying this too much._

Meanwhile...

**What the hell are you doing, partner?! Take my energy and change already!**

"Gyah-" _I would, but I can't seem to get at it-_

**Your energy is blocking it off! Seal it you fucking idiot!**

Ichigo gritted his teeth and leapt away from the next attack. _I'm trying, but it would be easier if she let me stand still for a moment-_

**YOU DON'T FUCKING NEED TO STAND STILL YOU IDIOT!** the hollow howled at him. **JUST GET OVER WITH IT AND USE MY FUCKING ENERGY!**

_Yeesh, no need to yell._ Ichigo finally managed to seal his energy, and he let the hollow reiatsu wah through him. The white gunk spread to cover the rest of his body, giving him the familiar appearance of a reptilian hollow.

"Well, that took you long enough kid."

"**I would've done it sooner if you-**"

"Woulda, coulda, shoulda. What matters is you did it now."

"**...I don't feel much different. What's the point of being in hollow form if there's no power boost?**"

Sayu flicked her kodachi and removed Ichigo's left arm.

"**OW! What the hell was-**"

"You regenerate wounds impossible to fix otherwise, and you gain the extra powers your hollow posesses. Judging on how hard it was to cut through your skin, I'd say your hollow is a close-up battle type."

"**...cool, but-**"

"I'll need Raiden to help show you the other advantages. Raiden!"

Said person raced into the room.

"Yeah, what?"

Sayu put her hand on her head. "I-ugh. I can't believe I'm saying this," she muttered. "Raiden, will you fight me?"

Raiden cocked his head. "Let me guess: strawberry idiot over here can't see why we would even bother to use our hollow forms in a real battle, so you need me to help you show off the side benefits. Right?"

"Yeah."

Raiden shrugged. "Works for me. You want me to-"

"Nope!" Sayu chirped. "I'm changing."

"What?!"

"You got plenty of fun time with that weird mantis guy, so now it's my turn!"

"Oh come on!" Raiden whined as Sayu blasted her armor off.

"Watch closely kid. You're lucky I'm even doing this."

Ichigo watched in curiosity as Sayu started glowing slightly before the same white gunk covered her body and solidified. She now resembled a harpy, with clawed hands and feet and large razor-sharp wings. Raiden sighed, drew his scimitar, and Sayu lunged at him.

The clash of talon-on-blade rang throughout the sub-basement. Raiden seemed hard pressed to defend against Sayu's beserker style, and any counter attacks he used were simply blocked by her wings while he had to retreat when she launched her feathers as projectiles, or have them embedded in his armor. To Ichigo, she seemed like a gigantic bird of prey. There was very little humanity in her movements, and that made her extremely hard to predict, particularly at this speed.

Raiden stabbed at her face, and she merely ducked underneath. He changed the thrust into a downward slash, and only glanced off her wings. She swept her claws forward, and Raiden abandoned his attack in favor of vaulting overhead to land behind her. She extended her left wing out to the side as she spun, and Raiden was forced to deflect it lest he gain a new scar on his face. This left him open to her clawed right hand, which stopped millimeters from his ribs.

"**I thought you were better than that!**" she taunted, eyes twinkling.

"Yeah well, I'm out of practice," Raiden grumbled before he stalked off.

"**Well, I sincerely** hope you were paying attention, because I don't want to have to explain. Your body gets tougher, you gain some speed and power, and you're not as predictable as you are when you are in shinigami form."

Ichigo nodded. "**But what about using both powers together?**"

"You don't seem to have much aptitude for that, so I won't bother." Ichigo glared.

"**I thought you were going to push me harder!**"

"Oh I'm sorry. Did I ever say that I'd train you for a full week? Consider yourself lucky. You'll have a chance to see the three of us spar with the captain. If you really want to get better, your hollow should be able to teach you how to use your powers properly. Right now, I'm just bored with you."

_You lousy-_ Ichigo couldn't find the words to finish the thought. "**Wait, you said you would be sparring with your captain? When?**"

"We'll be doing it down here a week from now. If you want, you can have your friends come over, and then you'll see the difference between us and the "official" captains of Soul Society. We aren't like those weaklings, so keep that in mind."

Ichigo disappeared right after that, eager to breathe fresh air after nearly a month underground. Sayu turned to where Renji was, "kindly" requested that he leave, and then after laughing her ass off at how fast the terrified pineapple vacated the area, she grabbed Raiden and enlisted his help in enlarging the underground chamber. They were going to need it _a lot_ bigger.

**Now, I'm not making any promises, but the next chapter will have a long description of the fight. I have absolutely no idea how long it will be, but most likely longer than this chapter. And I'm guessing the longer the better, eh? Just wait. I swear the next chapter will be awesome!**


	21. Chapter 20

**I'm sorry! I got swamped with homework and Science Olympiad, so I had _no_ time to work on this until this morning. I hope you enjoy this. This chapter connects back to the canon, and it has the fight between the ex-captains, so enjoy!**

Chapter Twenty: A little spar

A week later, Enishi, Raiden and Sayu stood facing Kuromaru in the enlarged and heavily reinforced sub-basement. Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, Chad, Ikkaku, Yumichika, and surprisingly, Urahara and Yoruichi stood to the side, spectators to the coming clash. After all, it wasn't every day that three upper tier captains fought with a captain on the same level as the Soutaicho or Aizen. That apparently hadn't been enough to get Hitsugaya to come along, and Matsumoto merely tagged along with him.

"Urahara-san, do you think that they'll go all out?"

"Well I should hope not, Kurosaki-san. For one thing, they are experienced captains, and they would know the consequences of using excessive amounts of energy. For another, this is merely a spar. Impressive though it will be, it will hardly do any justice to their real skills. And thirdly, they would not be so stupid as to reveal their true capabilities to outside observers.

"Although," Urahara continued while looking at the four. "those three apparently will not be restricting themselves." Enishi, Raiden and Sayu had stripped off their armor, revealing to all their true appearance.

Enishi carried himself with an air of indifference. That attitude was reflected in his ice-white eyes and relaxed posture. Short though he was, he was still an imposing and intimidating figure with his cropped onyx hair and perpetually serious face. The message was clear: don't mess with me.

Raiden sported a mess of flaming red hair that was spiked up and still maintained its form even though he had been wearing a helmet over it. His golden eyes conveyed an unquenchable eagerness for action; more specifically, combat. Taller than Enishi and more muscled, his smile put others more at ease, though that quality made him quite dangerous to any who fought him.

Sayu was, simply put, the epitome of grace. Tall and lithe, with waist-length silver hair and storm-gray eyes that flickered around constantly, she was off-putting in that her happy-go-lucky attitude didn't quite extend to those gray eyes. There was just something hidden behind them that frightened nearly everyone who saw her face.

Urahara whistled. "So that's the Silver Tempest…she is beautiful…and deadly."

Everyone else turned toward him questioningly. "What are you talking about?" Yoruichi inquired.

"Outside of the Fifth Division except for among the captains, she was called the "Flower of Death." Among the Fifth, they called her the "Silver Tempest," a play on her hair and her zanpaku-to."

"And you know this…how?" Renji asked.

Urahara shrugged. "They didn't guard the archives very well back then…" Yoruichi palmed her face.

Kuromaru merely stripped off his cloak and let it flutter to the side before he gestured. **BEGIN.**

***

Raiden, true to his nature, charged forward immediately, right fist drawn back. Kuromaru used his left forearm to shunt the blow away while throwing a vicious right hook in response. Raiden grabbed his wrist with his left, turned, and wrapped his right arm over it, trapping it. Kuromaru responded by grabbing Raiden's left shoulder with his other hand and yanking towards himself while he drove a knee into Raiden's back. Then he tugged his arm free and performed a right open palm strike that launched Raiden away from him.

Sayu took the opportunity to initiate kamikaze-style slash attacks interspersed with the occasionally thrown kunai. Kuromaru finally countered one of her charges by sidestepping to his right while grabbing her shunto with his left hand. As he gripped it, he spun with the combined force of Sayu's inertia and his own speed before he let her fly away. Far from normal expectations however, she did not impact the wall. Only Urahara and the combatants saw the tiny reishi threads attached to Kuromaru's armor where they had impacted when he deflected them. They seemed to compress before snapping back to their normal state. Sayu flew back on the recoil, shunto extended in a thrust aimed at Kuromaru. The captain simply jumped up high, snipping the threads as he did so, grabbing them and using them to sling Sayu into the ground with appalling force.

Enishi didn't give him time to recover. No sooner had the dust cloud arisen then Kuromaru was forced to guard against a two-handed swing from the azure spear. Enishi proceeded to launch a barrage of strikes that kept Kuromaru on the defensive. Raiden picked himself up off the ground, released his axe, and proceeded to try and attack the captain's blind side.

Kuromaru stopped a shove from Enishi's spear with his left hand, gripped it tight, and then flung Enishi over his shoulder. Raiden jumped overhead, grabbing Enishi's spear and dragging him up as well. Then, at the apex, he released his grip on the spear, held his axe in both hands, and brought it down, hard.

Kuromaru clapped his hands on either side of Raiden's axe before bringing his hands downward to embed the axe in the ground. Not-quite-coincidentally, he also ducked underneath a wind blast that Sayu fired at him, which blew Raiden away instead. Then he stood up and spun while neutralizing two more blasts, first with his right fist, and another with an open left hand

Enishi, meanwhile, was still in the air, and began spinning rapidly. As he came down, he extended his spear in a futile effort to strike at the captain's head. Kuromaru whirled around and canceled the attack with an open right palm strike, and the recoil launched Enishi backward several yards to land in a ready stance, spear out to his right.

Raiden got up and charged again, seemingly unharmed, to launch a barrage of blows that were either dodged or neutralized. Then Kuromaru lashed out with a favored right palm strike. Raiden blocked with his left forearm, though it went numb in the process. And then, while Kuromaru was reeling him in, Raiden drew back a hand while forming a cero. However, rather than extending his hand and firing it, he fired it first, and then extended a closed fist into the cero. The result was spectacular. The cero enveloped his fist, which abruptly appeared to vanish before crashing into Kuromaru's chest. There was a sound of two near-simultaneous impacts, hailing the first blow the captain had received. Kuromaru skidded backward, hunched over from the blast, a large spiderweb of cracks on his chestplate, as Raiden charged forward again and performed the same move. Kuromaru stepped backward, and then immediately sidestepped as well. When Raiden's punch missed its mark, the cero left his hand completely and continued straight ahead through the space that Kuromaru's head had just vacated. But it wasn't over just yet. Enishi blurred into existence in the path of the errant energy blast as the charm on his left wrist flashed and extended as net of reishi threads. The cero barreled headlong into it and the net shrank with its captured load. The charm flashed again and formed a bow with a pulsating red arrow. Enishi slammed his spear on top of the arrow, and the spear gained a crimson aura. He readied the bow, and fired.

Raiden vanished the moment the spear left the bow, and Kuromaru whirled around just in time for it to hit him. A massive explosion rang throughout the chamber, but when the dust cleared, Kuromaru stood there, holding the spear with two fingers of his right hand in front of his chest. He raised it over his shoulder, and with a negligent flick, fired the spear back at Enishi, in the face. Enishi didn't even _attempt_ to catch it at that speed, and it embedded itself almost entirely inside the wall behind where he'd been.

Meanwhile, Raiden picked up his axe, nodded at Sayu, and then unleashed a raging torrent of flames at Kuromaru. Sayu twirled her blade as it changed to its released kodachi form before slashing horizontally in front of herself and sending a powerful cyclone at the captain as well. The flames and cyclone collided around Kuromaru and fairly exploded into a blazing pyre that completely obscured the captain from view. Enishi tugged his spear out of the wall and pointed it at the tower of fire. Simultaneously, Raiden threw his axe, Sayu fired a lightning storm from her blade, and Enishi sent a veritable wall of very large ice needles at the tower.

The three attacks obviously hit _something_ in that inferno, because there was a larger explosion, and then silence as the firestorm dissipated. Then Raiden's axe flew back out, spinning so fast that it whined as it flew at his chest level. Raiden ducked underneath and kicked it toward the ceiling where it ricocheted back down to his hand. Sayu barely raised her blade in time to block a similar but much more powerful lighting storm, and Enishi was forced to create an ice clone to escape a hail of _much_ larger ice needles than the ones he threw. A new firestorm, pitch-black this time, erupted from the dust cloud. When it faded, Kuromaru stood there holding his broadsword up with the four diamonds glowing red, blue, yellow and gray.

***

Kurotsuchi stood in the center of the communications center with Akon and Nemu by his side. Their attention was focused on a large display that was currently covered in static. Occasionally the screens flickered and showed sudden clear images of parts of the world, mainly Karakura Town, only to return to static once more. However, these occasions were becoming much more frequent than usual these past few days. Kurotsuchi patiently stood, waiting until the screens all flashed clear feeds and remained so for more than ten seconds.

"Soutaicho, our communications network is back online. The Dangai is now stable enough for passage."

"Convene in the Captain's hall at once."

Kurotsuchi peeled his lips from his teeth in displeasure. He had wanted to personally study the afteraffects. "Hai."

***

Ulquiorra entered the room set aside for the Espadas. "Yammy, Luppi, it is time."

Yammy shrugged while Luppy cracked a grin before they got up and followed. They hadn't gotten far before a loud, one-armed Grimmjow stepped in front of them.

"Hey! I'm going with you!"

"Grimmjow," Ulquiorra stated warningly. "You are no longer an Espada, and have little say in this..."

"Feh! I'm coming whether you like it or not! I just want to kill that stupid shinigami!"

Ulquiorra considered before shrugging in dismissal and continuing. Yammy sneered at Grimmjow while Luppi eyed him with disdain. The group entered the throne room.

"With one obvious exception," Ulquiorra stated while Grimmjow glared murderously at his back. "these are my choices for the operation."

Aizen nodded while Margera Wonderweiss detatched himself from Tosen and clung to Yammy.

"Huh? Who's this?"

Aizen smiled, amused. "It seems that Tosen's friend wishes to accompany you in this. Very well, proceed."

"Hai."

Yammy, Luppi and Grimmjow opened the now-stablized Gargantas and entered their depths while Ulquiorra went to confer with Szayel about the Dangai surveillance.

***

"Now that communications have been restored, I believe that you have something to report, Hitsugaya-taicho?"

On the screen, the tenth captain nodded. "Hai. Kurosaki Ichigo has been going through training sessions with Captains Takahashi, Namikawa and Hanabusa." There was a great deal of sympathetic wincing at the last name. "In addition, Abarai-fukutaicho has been helping to train the ryoka Yasutora Sado in the usage of his powers. I have recorded footage of this training and Urahara's conclusions that he shared with me, at Kurotsuchi-taicho's request." Kurotsuchi grinned insanely. Perhaps this meeting wasn't a _complete_ waste of time. "There is one more thing. Kuchiki Rukia" Byakuya lifted his head in interest. "was training with Shihouin Yoruichi before Takahashi-taicho took over. From what Kurosaki and Abarai-fukutaicho have told me, that training placed a great deal of mental strain on her. I have doubts about her continued station here in Karakura."

Byakuya's eyes narrowed while the Soutaicho considered other matters to be brought forward.

"That concludes your report?"

"Hai."

"Hmm…" The silence was broken by Kurotsuchi's communicator.

"Kurotsuchi-taicho!"Akon gasped out. "My apologies, but our probes in Hueco Mundo have recorded some alarming data-"

"Send it to the projector."

The holographic projector hummed to life and displayed for all the captains the information. Kurotsuchi studied the charts for several moments before he turned toward the Soutaicho.

"Apparently, our four rogue captains have been paying visits to Hueco Mundo. What's more, they routinely emerge in the known vicinity of his stronghold."

"Hmm…"

"What did they do there?" Ukitake queried.

"Alas, that I am unable to determine. All that we know for sure is that they did something nearby. They definitely used their powers on hollows and arrancar in the vicinity, but that is all we can be sure of."

"Perhaps as a demonstration of their usefulness to Aizen?" Soifon offered.

"Soifon-taicho," Kyouraku put in. "I usually don't take sides in this sort of thing, but I cannot believe that they would work with Aizen. Sayu-chan did tell us that they consider him to be more irksome than us."

"As Special Forces Commander, I have to examine all angles that a possible threat could come at us from. They are a possible threat-"

"-but they will not ally with Aizen. Why establish themselves with someone weaker than them? There are no politics in this affair, so there is no advantage."

"In any case," Kurotsuchi added. "their presence in Hueco Mundo was apparently a detriment becase a large number of hollows and arrancar are recorded as obliterated."

"Hmm…"

"But that is a side affair. Communications are up, and also from the data that we recorded, Aizen can now traverse the realms. It does appear that the rogue captains were telling the truth about preventing Aizen from moving."

Hitsugaya decided to add his part. "I am requesting additional reinforcements for Karakura."

"Negative. We still have need of every able-bodied shinigami in order to facilitate preparations to meet Aizen. He shouldn't be making any moves until the winter, when he is prepared to sacrifice Karakura town."

"Soutaicho-"

"Enough. I trust that in the event you require aid, Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi can provide assistance."

"…hai."

"For now, we all need to focus on preparing. Dismissed."

***

Raiden blew forward yet again, swinging his axe down, hard. Kuromaru merely brought up his sword and easily disarmed him. Riaden simply shrugged and continued, but with his fists. Ichigo and the others watched, entranced. Enishi and Sayu were obviously experts in any form of combat, including hand-to-hand. Raiden however, he qualified as an artist. Where the other two performed stiff lateral combos that required a withdrawal to renew the assault or a pause to begin the next move, Raiden was a seamless flow of continuous movement. It was almost hypnotic as blow after blow rained down faster than their eyes could follow.

But Kuromaru was every bit as skilled as Raiden, or perhaps he saw things in slow-motion. Every punch, kick, body blow or headbutt was blocked, deflected or dodged. Finally, Raiden threw a punch that Kuromaru answered full force, and he went flying backward to impact the wall, shattering it.

Enishi leapt forward to take his place, twirling his spear so fast that it whined through the air. Every time the faintly glowing azure weapon crashed against the massive broadsword of the captain, ice formed along the blade, and one of the diamonds turned blue. When all four were blue, Kuromaru tried to take a step backward, intending to slash the ground and release the stored attack, but Enishi made one extra lunge and blasted him with one enormous ice dragon, landing the second blow on the captain.

Kuromaru wound up being buried in ice at the far end. Sayu threw a shredding gale and the right behind it, another lightning storm. The ice exploded before her wind could cut through it, and the wind and lightning was simply deflected to the side. Kuromaru walked out of the dust cloud, swiping the ground as he did so and turning a large section of it to ice. When he did so, the diamonds faded back to their usual clarity. He raised his blade in front of himself, and beckoned.

As Raiden was currently in no position to charge, still buried in the wall and likely concussed, Sayu took it upon herself to attack. As she raced forward, she let fly four powerful wind attacks before lunging forward.

Kuromaru simply raised two fingers and fired a twisting black and white cero that drilled through the wind blasts. Caught flat-footed, Sayu took the spiraling energy blast to the chest and was slammed into the far wall just as hard or perhaps hard_er_ than Raiden. Kuromaru then turned his attention to Enishi.

The black-haired ice master eyed his brother and sister before he turned back to the captain. He then picked up his spear, reversed it, and rammed it into the ground before kneeling. "I yield."

***

As the others split off to head for home (Ichigo and Rukia peeling off from the rest), Hitsugaya's notice about communications reached them at about the same time that three gargantas opened up in the sky.

"Alright, the plan is to take them out of possible, but we're just stalling for time while Ulquiorra grabs the girl," Luppi reminded them. Yammy nodded while Grimmjow snorted derisively. "What? You got a problem with that, _numero_?!"

Grimmjow smirked and angled his head, further enraging the new sixth espada. "No, _espada_."

Yammy sighed. This was not going to end well...

**So how was it? Please review!**


	22. Chapter 21

**Well, this is the next chapter. Read and review please?**

Chapter Twenty-one: Aizen's next move

In keeping with his volatile grudging nature, Grimmjow disappeared as soon as he could sense Ichigo's reiatsu. The only problem with it was that there was so much of his reiatsu lying around that it diffused and so Grimmjow would end up searching unproductively for ten minutes before he found him. Yammy rolled his eyes while Luppi spotted their targets.

"Heh he! Now to go have some fun!" Before Yammy or Margera could stop him (if Margera had been fully aware of anything, he would certainly have had the power to do so), Luppi had used Sonido to get practically in the face of Hitsugaya and Matsumoto.

"What the-agh! Madarame! Ayasegawa! We're under attack by arrancar! Get over here and-"

That was as far Hitsugaya got before Luppi bashed him across the face.

"Feh, this is a shinigami captain? Pathetic." With that, Hitsugaya was blasted four block away, crashing through numerous houses, and he wound up being buried in rubble.

"Taicho!" Matsumoto made to run over to him before Luppi appeared in front.

"Where do you think you're going, woman?"

Matsumoto gritted her teeth. "Growl, Haineko!"

The blade turned to ash and streaked toward the espada, who yawned before he called out "Strangle, Trepadora!"

An explosion of light blinded Matsumoto, and when she regained the use of her eyes, she saw Luppi with eight large tentacle sprouting from his back. "Sorry! It ain't gonna be that easy, shinigami, because it looks like it's three on eight!"

Ikkaku and Yumichika finally caught up to her. Ikkaku grinned maniacally while from far off, Yammy adopted a brooding position in the air. "Show off..." he muttered.

***

As far away as they were, neither Ichigo nor Rukia failed to recognize the signs and sounds of newly imparted destruction.

"What the hell?! Another arrancar attack?"

Rukia yanked out her phone. "Hitsugaya-taicho? Hitsugaya-taicho?! What's going on? Damn it! He's not answering!"

"Fuck! Who's it this time? Hey wait a minute-oh shit! Grimmjow's here!"

"What?!"

"Feh! There you are shinigami!"

Grimmjow hung in the air sporting the same psychotic grin and mask fragment, his left sleeve conspicuously vacant. Despite, the situation, Ichigo couldn't help himself.

"Heh, looks like someone got in trouble last time!"

Grimmjow growled. The condescending prick was really pissing him off. "I decided I don't need both of my arms to take care of you!" he howled as he charged directly at the strawberry pissant.

Ichigo swore. Apparently he had said the wrong thing. "Rukia, get out of here, now!"

"Ichigo-"

"Go!"

Rukia's trouble in deciding was very quickly resolved when Grimmjow fired a cero at her, forcing her to move. Ichigo yanked out his cleaver and answered Grimmjow's blow with a full swing of his own, a lesson learned from Raiden. Both strained before springing back. Grimmjow smiled again.

"Come on, shinigami! Today, you die!"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed. "Bankai!" The familiar explosion of light and spiritual pressure took place, and Ichigo angled his blade at the former espada. "Tensa Zangetsu."

Grimmjow smirked. "So what? You still got your ass handed to you last time even with your bankai!"

Ichigo looked straight at him, his eyes promising impeding pain. "I was training for a month. I won't let you beat me!" he declared as he lunged forward in a sideways slash.

"Heh, BRING IT!" Grimmjow sprang to meet him.

***

Things were not going well for Matsumoto, Ikkaku or Yumichika. Perhaps they might have been marginally better off if they hadn't sent Renji to fetch Urahara. Luppi was holding the three of them each with one tentacle and yawning again.

"Heh, sorry! But you guys just aren't much fun. And you're supposed to be elite?"

From a ways off, Yammy still sat while Margera attempted to catch a butterfly in his mouth.

"Tch. Jerkwad. He took all three of them and there's no one to play with."

That was about to change.

"You know what," Luppi continued. "it just ain fun right now. Sorry, but I'm going to poke you full of holes!" Needle-like spines erupted from the tips of each tentacle. Luppi grinned a leacherous smile. "And I think I'l start with you!" Matsumoto's eyes widened as a blindingly fast spiny tentacle whipped toward her. But before it could strike, an energy blast struck it from the side.

"Eh?" Luppi turned toward the source.

"Phew, I made it in time."

"What the-who the hell are you?"

Urahara angled his head, shading his eyes. "Heh, I'm so rude. Urahara Kisuke, at your service!" he announced while he placed his hand behind his hat. "And it looks like Rangiku-san has quite a lot on her hands along with Madarame-san, so-"

Urahara was cut off as Margera blurred into existence behind him and fired an energy blast from his right hand. An explosion rang out and Urahara was blasted backward from the deflection from Margera, who went back to chasing butterflies. "Hmm, that's an interesting move you just used there. What was it?"

Urahara was suddenly blasted into the ground by Yammy, who was glad to see someone he could pound on. "I'll tell you what it is! It's a bala! We arrancar harden our spiritual pressures and fire it like a bullet! It does less damage than a cero, but it's twenty times faster!"

While Urahara was mercilessly barraged by Yammy, Luppi looked on. "Feh, I wanted to take him too…but I can still play with you three."

Matsumoto didn't respond. She stared calmly back, or rather, past him.

"What are you looking at woman? You're really starting to annoy me."

"…"

"Not answering eh? Oh well. Sorry, but this is it for you!"

Luppi whirled a spiked tentacle at her, but was stopped by a thick coating of ice that somehow appeared on the tip. Matsumoto smiled. "Taicho!"

"No," Hitsugaya called. "this is it for _you._"

***

Despite the month (actually three and a half weeks) of hard training, Ichigo still found it hard to keep up with Grinnjow. True, his control allowed him to last longer, but he was still far outmatched by the power that the former espada was drawing on.

"Come on you pathetic shinigami! I know you're holding back! Show me your full power!" Grimmjow crowed as he slammed Ichigo into the ground yet again.

Ichigo growled and shot up at Grimmjow, actually forcing him higher before they sprang back. "Fine, I'll show you, but it'll be over quick." The ever-overconfident shinigami substitute brought his hand in front of his face, and brought together the reshi particles forming his mask. Grimmjow stared when he saw it.

"What the hell! That's not shinigami power!"

"**IT DOESN'T MATTER! YOU'LL DIE NOW!**" Ichigo roared while his tremendous reiatsu unfurled and exploded around him. He flashed into existence in front of Grimmjow, left hand already wrapped around his jaw. He delivered a hammer blow with his nodachi in his right hand, and then reversed the blow and released his left hand so that Grimmjow shot skyward like he was launched from a cannon. Both blows sent massive shockwaves reverberating through the sky. Rukia was overwhelmed in terror, and had to reassure herself almost continuously that it was indeed Ichigo, not his hollow.

Grimmjow righted himself while Ichigo raced at him at a speed far beyond what any normal shinigami could hope to achieve in a lifetime, opened a hand full of swirling crimson reiatsu, and fired it at Ichigo. Ichigo smashed it aside contemptuously before he stopped in front and slightly above Grimmjow with both hands on his blade. "**DIE!!!!**"

Grimmjow desperately focused all the energy he could currently muster into his fist, drew it back in an arc, and swung at Ichigo just as the black nodachi crashed down.

It was a spectacular sight. It was a very good thing that they hadn't clashed on the ground, because the blowout would have destroyed any buildings in the vicinity. The cloud of energy expanded before the explosion blasted the two combatants straight downward. Amazingly, both flew downward side-by-side. Ichigo had lost his mask, while Grimmjow was sporting a massive cut down his chest. He was also sporting a huge grin.

"What? That was it? Too bad shinigami!"

Ichigo cursed as he halted in midair and brought up his blade. Grimmjow smashed his fist against it, forcing Ichigo back, or down in this case. He desperately fended off another assault before he brought up his blade and slashed sidewayes using Raiden's secret technique.

Grimmjow's arm didn't shatter, but it sure as hell broke. As Ichigo connected, he unleashed a massive Getsuga Tensho that shoved the former Espada quite a distance away before the energy wave exploded in midair. When the smoke cleared, Gimmjow was sporting a new massive scar across his chest.

"Heh, so you do have some fight left in you," he commented while he reset his arm with his teeth and healed it. "That makes it much more interesting!"

He made to attack again, but found himself engulfed in a looming ice wave, courtesy of Rukia.

"Ichigo!"

"Damn it Rukia! You were supposed to get out of here!"

"Don't give me that! You needed help." Rukia snapped as she began healing Ichigo's wounds. "He would have killed you if I hadn't-"

The ice shattered and Rukia could suddenly only see out of one eye as Grimmjow had wrapped his hand around her head.

"Stupid bitch! Stay out of this!" he snarled, furious at having been caught off guard and that this shrimp had the gall to attack him.

"Rukia!" Ichigo yelled as he saw the pulsing cero forming between Rukia's eye and Grimmjow's remaining hand.

"Maa, I really shouldn't be out like this, but when I hear screaming, I just can't help myself."

Grimmjow looked over, stunned. Who the hell was this guy?

Ichigo turned to look. "Hirako?!"

Shinji stood in midair, still dressed in what looked like a suit, with his sheathed zanpaku-to casually draped over his shoulders.

"Who are you? One of their allies?"

"I don't take sides, arrancar."

"Don't bullshit me!" Grimmjow snarled as he released Rukia and attacked, or _tried_ to.

"Maa, maa. This is why I hate getting involved," Shinji stated deadpan while he casually held Grimmjow in a guard lock with his _sheathed_ zanpaku-to.

"What the fuck are you?"

"Me?" Shinji placed his index and middle fingers on his forehead and pulled down his mask. "**I am your death.**"

***

Orihime stood in front of the Senkaimon and bowed to Ukitake and Unohana. "Th-thank you for letting me come here!"

Ukitake smiled. "We should be thanking you. You have helped to teach us much with your abilities."

"And know that you are welcome back at anytime, Inoue-san," Unohana added kindly.

"Now, I think you should get a move on back to your willl have two escorts, and we will be freezing the Dangai so you will have safe passage."

"Thanks!"

Both captains smiled. "Farewell."

Orihime turned and ran with her two escorts into the portal. She hadn't even gotten halfway through the Dangai when a familiar cold voice stopped her in her tracks, along with her two escorts.

"Only two escorts?" Ulquiorra questioned as he emerged from a garganta. "I see…Soul Society is surprisingly inept to remember that you are most vulnerable when you are traveling."

"An arrancar!"

"Inoue-san, please go! We will hold-"

Ulquiorra didn't allow the shinigami to finish before he split the man in half.

"No! Soten Kishun! Ayame! Shun-o!" The healing shield covered the fallen man while his frightened partner attacked.

"Murderer!"

"Hmph, trash." With yet another invisibly fast slice, the other shinigami suffered the same fate as his companion. Orihime's eyes locked in determination as she expanded the shield to cover both men.

"Hmm, you can heal them even in this state?"

"…what do you want?"

"Aizen-sama desires your power. You will come with me."

Orihime backed away slightly.

"It is not an order," Ulquiorra continued. "If you do not comply, I will kill. But not you. I will kill your friends." Three other gargantas opened up, showing each Hitsugaya, Matsumoto and Ichigo in their fights. Orihime's heart seized. _Kurosaki-kun!_

**I'm going on vacation this Saturday, so it might take longer than usual to update. Don't worry! Just be patient!**


	23. Chapter 22

**The last chapter before I go on vacation. Sorry it's short. I might update while I'm on vacation too, but who knows.**

Chapter Twenty-two: Mission accomplished

Luppi stared. Hadn't he already destroyed this kid?

"What the hell-!"

Hitsugaya gestured at his icy wings. "If I had been a little slower, you would have turned me to paste. But you didn't. And now, you will pay for that mistake."

"Tch! It doesn't matter how you survived. You'll die because you were too stupid to stay down!"

Luppi made to attack with his remaining arms, but they were easily stopped by Hitsugaya's wings.

"I seem to remember you saying that it was three against eight. If your weapon is your eight arms," Hitsugaya gestured around, and hundreds of icy pillars formed in the air. "then mine is all of the water in the atmosphere."

Luppi looked on in astonishment. "W-what is this?!"

"This is your end, arrancar," Hitsugaya answered as he raised his blade and pointed it at him. Then he rotated the blade. "Sennen Hyoro."

One thousand ice pillars impacted on all sides. Luppi had been too stunned by the sight to lift his defenses. Matsumoto, Ikkaku and Yumichika pulled themselves free and looked on. Meanwhile, Yammy had finished with Urahara and was now thinking fast, a strenuous exercise for him.

"Man, they got Luppi…and Grimmjow is having trouble too. At this rate-"

"-Aizen-sama will be mad at youuuu!" an overly cheerful voice chimed in.

"What the-!" Yammy whirled around in disbelief.

" 'I know every bala hit him, so how is he standing there without a scratch,' right?" Urahara asked. "This is how." He pulled a small pill from thin air, pressed it to his lips and blew. Yammy watched as an inflatable image of Urahara appeared next to the real one. "It's an inflatable gigai, for use in combat. I'd give it to others, but the timing is tricky to get right."

"Why you-!" Yammy fired another bala, but it missed.

"It's now use," Urahara stated from behind the bewildered espada. "I've already had plenty of chances to see and analyze that attack, and it will not land no matter what. And now it is my turn." He raised his cane sword. "Scream, Benihime." And the red blast bore down on him-

***

"A mask?! You're one of their allies!" Grimmjow snarled as he defended against the bored Hirako.

"**Didn't I already tell you? I don't take sides, arrancar.**"

Ichigo and Rukia looked on in awe as Shinji, the former slacker, proceeded to overwhelm Grimmjow.

"Gah! Who the fuck are you?!"

"**It doesn't matter.**"

Shinji slammed Grimmjow down into the ground and then held his blade out horizontally, pointing the hilt guard at the former espada.

"DAMN YOU! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"

Grimmjow pointed two fingers at Shinji and readied a cero. "DIE!!!!"

Shinji formed his own cero at the hilt of his blade.

"**If you insist…**"

Grimmjow was overwhelmed despite his own blast, and when the smoke cleared, he was downright furious.

"Alright that's it!" He unsheathed his zanpaku-to and held it as if preparing a rising cutter. "Grind-"

"That's enough, Grimmjow." Ulquiorra said, placing a restraining hand on Grimmjows arm.

"The fuck?! I was going to-"

"Our mission is accomplished." As he said this, a familiar square column of light came down and engulfed the two. "We are leaving."

"Tch!" Grimmjow turned to face Ichigo as he rose up. "Don't forget about me, shinigami! I will be the one who kills you in the end!"

And then they were gone.

***

-and a golden column of light saved the espada, dispersing Urahara's wave attack.

"Huh," Yammy uttered intelligently. "So we're done here. The mission must have been successful."

Urahara's eyes widened. "Damn it!"

"Heh, looks like you are too late! See ya!"

Meanwhile, over with Hitsugaya…

Another negacion speared the icy tomb and retracted with Luppi, who was still very much alive.

"Damn you, shinigami! You came close to killing me, but you failed. Remember my face, because someday I'm going to kill you taicho-san!"

Hitsugaya could only watch helplessly as the sixth espada disappeared into the sky.

"Taicho!"

"Matsumoto, are you alright?"

Matsumoto winced while holding her side. "He broke a few ribs, but I'm fine."

Hitsugaya shunpoed over to Urahara.

"Ah, Hitsugaya-san. You are okay?"

Hitsugaya grunted an affirmative. "Urahara, do you know why they retreated?"

Urahara inclined his head. "I suspect that the reason lies with Soul Society."

***

"…we could find no trace of the ryoka Orihime Inoue. All we discovered were the two escorts, unconscious but alive. They claimed to have been attacked by an arrancar who matches one of the descriptions that Hitsugaya-taicho sent us," Soifon concluded her report.

"So the objective of this whole escapade was to kidnap Inoue-san…" Urahara mused through the screen.

"Do you have something to add?" the Soutaicho queried.

"The reason Miss Inoue came over to train in the first place was because I told her that she was no use as a warrior. Her only means of attack was destroyed. I admit, I also had an ulterior motive. I wished to keep her power from Aizen because I fear that he may find a great use for her.

"You see, she has the power to reject events by distorting time and space. While I am not sure of the extent of her power, I believe that Aizen may make use of her to accelerate his plans, or impede ours."

"Hmm…" The Soutaicho thought long and hard before he made a decision. "We must accelerate our own preparations. With such power at his fingertips, we cannot wait for the winter. Hitsugaya-taicho, your forces are recalled to Soul Society."

"W-what?!" Renji, Rukia and Hitsugaya exclaimed.

"We will need all of you to aid in making preparations."

"But Soutaicho!" Hitsugaya protested. "If that really is her power, Aizen could use it to activate the Hogyoku early-"

"Not possible," Both Kurotsuchi and Urahara corrected, and then Urahara continued. "Miss Inoue is only capable of rejecting events that have already occurred. She is not yet at the level of fully rewriting the past, or accelerating time. The Hogyoku will most certainly not fully awaken until the winter. Karakura is in little danger until then."

"Then it is settled. Report back to Soul Society."

"…hai, Soutaicho."

***

Orihime entered Ichigo's room, undetected by the sleeping strawberry. She stood there lost in thought, remembering what Ulquiorra had told her.

_Flashback_

_"You will wear this," the espada said as he held out a bracelet. "This will mask your energy, making you undetectable and allow us to keep track of your location and monitor your movements. I will allow you to say goodbye to one person. Anything else and I will kill."_

_Flashback end_

A few tears streaked her face. "I'm sorry, Kurosaki-kun…goodbye."

She turned and vanished, and Ichigo woke up suddenly. "Inoue?"

***

"What do you mean Orihime's been kidnapped?!" Ichigo yelled.

"Orihime Inoue disappeared during her trip back here in the Dangai." Hitsugaya answered. "Her two escorts say that they were attacked by an arrancar with half a a mask fragment along the left side of his head-"

"Ulquiorra! Dammit!"

"Because of her powers, the Soutaicho is recalling all forces to prepare for Aizen's offensive. Kuchiki and Abarai should be leaving for Soul Society right now…"

***

"Nii-sama!"

"Kuchiki-taicho!"

"The Soutaicho sent me here to ensure that you return to Soul Society as ordered," Byakuya answered. "Come."

Reluctantly, the two followed him into the Senkaimon portal.

***

"…and I have already overstayed my welcome. I must leave now."

Hitsugaya turned to enter his portal, leaving Ichigo upset at being unable to do anything.

"Damn it!"

**Notice: I have decided to start writing a prequel to the story called On the Path to Exile. It documents Kuromaru, Enishi, Raiden and Sayu. The story is how they escaped being experiments and how they got to be captains. It will also include how they were imprisoned and their eventual escape. I was going to only work on it after I finished this story, but I found that I work better when I have two ongoing stories. So keep an eye out for it! Read and review!**


	24. Chapter 23

**Well, I said I might update, and I did. Here's the new chapter. I hope you enjoy it!**

Chapter Twenty-three: How to use power

Ichigo entered the basement of the hideout. He looked around and was gratified to see Kuromaru sitting in a meditative position in the center of the basement room.

"**What do you want, Kurosaki Ichigo?**"

"I want you to help me get stronger so I can rescue-"

"-**Inoue Orihime. Touching.**"

"You knew?!"

"**I know many things, Kurosaki.**"

"Tch!"

"**To answer your wish, no.**"

"What?!"

"**I will not train you.**"

"Why-"

"**I make it a habit not to involve myself on either side of those affairs too small to concern me.**"

"But Aizen-"

"**-is not a threat to me. Unless he is foolish enough to attempt to gain the same powers that you and I possess, there is little he will be able to do to actually pose a threat to me.**"

"How could you do this?! Aizen is going against Soul Society and the Real World, and you just don't care?!"

"**Know this, Kurosaki: when you are the ultimate power, you cannot afford to aid the side of your choice. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. You can see the result of that corruption unfolding around you. If I choose to aid a side, the world would come exceedingly close to the edge of destruction. Thus, I will not and cannot pick sides in this conflict.**"

"Ultimate power?! Give me a break!"

"**None can oppose me, save in the event that all dimensions turn against me. If I can wield that power, I am unstoppable. And because of that, I cannot apply myself to help any one side at a whim without dire consequences. Power is a curse. Perhaps you'll learn that it time.**"

"I don't care if it's a curse! I just want to rescue Inoue!"

Kuromaru sighed. "**You irk me, so perhaps I shall indulge in some reeducation by a spar. It is not training. If you wish to learn anything from this, you will have to come up with it on your own.**"

***

Hachi looked up in alarm as he sensed three enormous energy signatures passing effortlessly through his barrier. Naturally, the other vaizards took notice.

"What is it, Hachi?"

" 'It?' I don't recall that your manners were like this before, Kensei," Enishi commented before Hachi could respond. Shinji and Kensei bugged their eyes out while Love looked on in blank shock.

"Taicho?!"

Raiden waved at Love. "Calm and collected as always, eh Love?"

"Ohayo, Shinji! Long time no see!"

Shinji's eyebrows shot up at the uncharacteristic greeting. "What the fuck…"

"Not happy to see me?" Sayu asked in a slightly shrill voice.

"Um, Hanabusa-taicho, when I said that you needed to loosen up from before, I didn't mean loosen up the screws in your head," Shinji smirked.

"HEY!"

Enishi shook his head. "And she wonders why I have migranes…"

"Having it tough, captain?" Kensei commented while Mashiro's eyes expanded to inhuman sizes.

"You have no idea. Everytime she goes nuts now, I wind up having to fix all the shit she left behind."

"Not so laid back anymore huh?"

"…"

"So why are you here?" Shinji voiced the question for all.

"To see how you are after all these years," Enishi answered. "and to see if you are taking a side in this interesting conflict. I understand that you think it was your fault for all of this, Shinji."

Everyone turned to look while Shinji was downcast.

"I thought that distancing myself to watch from afar-"

"You can hardly be faulted for that," Sayu chided gently. "Aizen didn't just fool you, but Jushiro, Shunsui, Retsu-chan and the Soutaicho. He hoodwinked the best of Soul Society."

Shinji looked up. "I suppose…" he replied, unconvinced. "but now what do we do?"

"Correction: what do _you_ do?" Enishi stated.

"Taicho-"

"Kensei, we have already made our choices. You, on the other hand, seem to be bandying on the issue of whether or not to fight in Soul Society's defense or whether to defeat Aizen on your own. You can no longer afford to straddle the issue. Think about your choice. That's my last advice to you."

With that, the bittersweet reunion ended as Enishi, Raiden and Sayu disappeared, the latter two muttering about "emo freaks" to the confiusion of the former.

***

"Whoa!" Ichigo exclaimed as he walked into the pristine reinforced sub-basement level again. "Wasn't it completely trashed just yesterday?"

Kuromaru made no reply as he obliterated Raiden's hot spring and leveled the floor with a casual energy blast. "**And now, we fight, Kurosaki.**"

Ichigo barely brought out his cleaver in time to block a powerful punch from Kuromaru. Kuromaru brought up his left hand in response, hooked his fingers on the blunt side of the cleaver, and heaved, pitching the surprised shinigami substitute over his shoulder and into the far wall with a resounding crash.

"**Be warned: I was playing with you last time. This time,**" A huge wave of reiatsu exploded in a visible aura, dancing around the powerful captain. "**there will be no mercy.**"

***

"Ah, welcome to Las Noches," Aizen said as Ulquiorra escorted Orihime into the room, followed by Grimmjow, Yammy and Luppi. "I hope you enjoy your stay here, Orihime Inoue."

Orihime looked around at the bare walls, lined as they now were with arrancar, and then cast her eyes to the shadowy vaulted ceiling. She shivered. While she could think of many things about this place, enjoyment was not one of them.

"As you can see, Aizen-sama, the mission was successful."

"Indeed," Aizen replied amusedly.

"Tch!" Grimmjow snarled. "I don't see why we had to go through all the trouble to bring her here."

"I believe that she shall prove most useful, Grimmjow."

Grimmjow snorted again while Luppi eyed her with interest. "What would make her so useful, Aizen-sama?"

"Ah, she has the power of space-time distortion, as Ulquiorra-kun" Ulquiorra bowed his head. "noted on his last visit. With it, she can reverse time within an area, making it as such that certain events never happened. She can theoretically restore lost limbs and raise the dead."

Luppi snorted. "Impossible! To heal such injuries, the limbs must still exist! Without residuals, it can't be done."

Grimmjow smiled insanely. "Only one way to find out! Hey woman, can you heal my arm?"

Orihime looked on anxiously. "I-I can try," She stuttered. "Soten Kishun, Ayame! Shun-o!"

The two fairies flew from her hairpins and formed the healing shield around Grimmjow's left arm. Luppi's objections were cut off as, to his bewilderment, Grimmjow's arm did start to reform. When it was done, Grimmjow flexed his arm and smiled even wider. "Hey woman, can you heal this too?"

He indicated a scar on his back. Orihime nodded and the scar faded to be replaced by the number six.

"Grimmjow, what are you-"

Luppi was cut off as Grimmjow stabbed his left hand through Luppi's chest. "There's only room for one Sixth Espada," he breathed. "Get out of my spot!" With that, Grimmjow abruptly forced his hand upward and split Luppi's torso while removing his head.

Aizen's smile never left his face as Grimmjow flexed his arm in contentment. _Such is the way of things. The weak are brushed aside and disposed of while the strong take their place. A pity Soul Society doesn't see things that way…_

***

Gritting his teeth, Ichigo bashed aside another right kick with his cleaver only for Kuromaru to go with the deflection, wrap his left hand around Ichigo's neck bring his face downward, and punch him into the ceiling. Ichigo shot himself off with his hands, not bothering to try and get his bearings before doing so. He had already learned the hard way that doing that wasted time. In the initial shock, his instincts would usually be enough to buy him some time, as Kuromaru proved by smashing his fist where Ichigo had just been.

Ichigo landed on the floor and snarled. "Bankai! Tensa Zangetsu!

With the usual explosion of energy, he gained his black robes and the familiar nodachi. Ichigo smirked as he pulled on his mask. Time to teach this asshole a lesson.

Kuromaru was actually forced to draw his zanpaku-to. After Ichigo easily cut through the blade, Kuromaru forced energy into the fractured blade, creating an explosion that bought him some room.

"**…so you are not completely helpless. Very well.**"

The damaged blade glowed and changed to the broadsword. Kuromaru then charged forward too fast for Ichigo to dodge, forcing him to guard against the sideways swing from his right hand. Kuromaru abruptly reversed direction, turning full circle and performing a reverse cutter. Ichigo desperately forced his energy into the blade as he blocked. The clash exploded with energy as Ichigo unleashed a Getsuga Tensho, pushing Kuromaru backward. Ichigo was panting in exertion as his mask disintegrated. Kuromaru examined his cracked breastplate.

"**That you use your blade in that manner is a disgrace. You know it's abilities, and yet you resort to the lowest forms of combat with such a zanpaku-to.**"

Ichigo growled. "What the hell do you know about my zanpaku-to?! And let's see you use it the 'right' way!"

Kuromaru laughed, always a bad sign. "**A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Very well. I'll show you.**"

Ichigo watched perplexed as Kuromaru held his blade point down in his right hand, the hilt above his head, his left hand resting lightly against the flat side.

"**Tensa Zangetsu.**"

The broadsword glowed before it was surrounded in black swirling energy. Kuromaru was surrounded by the same energy. He swept the blade overhead before bringing it down to his side. The energy dispersed in a flash. He was wearing the same robes and clutching the same exact nodachi as Ichigo, who stared in complete and utter disbelief.

"**Now, Kurosaki,**" Kuromaru continued. "**This is how you use it's power…**"

**Now this is going to be a routine. When I update, I'll update for both stories, so check On the Road to Exile too! Review please.**


	25. Chapter 24

**Well what do you know? I managed to update really fast this time. Here's the new chapter.**

Chapter Twenty-four: This is gonna hurt

Kuromaru briefly spun the blade on the severed chain attached to it before he charged forward, gripped the hilt and swung upward. Ichigo's block was too weak to halt the blade, and so his blade shot upward as well. Kuromaru reversed his grip in mid-swing, pivoted left, and stabbed behind him with the blade held in a reverse-grip. Ichigo had not been able to bring his guard back down in time, and took a stab to the chest. Because he wasn't fast enough, the result was disastrous for him. Kuromaru slammed the palm of his left hand against the hilt while releasing his right hand. A chain-link looped itself over his finger while the blade exploded with energy. The blast almost killed him outright because a sizeable portion entered his body and nearly tore him apart from the inside. Ichigo was sent flying backward to slam into the far wall.

"Augh! Fuck!" Ichigo swore as he forced some of his reiatsu to his ribs, healing the microscopic fractures he had received, and numbing the pain.

Kuromaru spun the sword on the chain-link around his finger before pirouetting and flinging the blade, a long extending chain behind it. Ichigo swore again and vacated the wall crater. There was another massive explosion of energy when the blade slammed into the wall, destroying everything within twenty feet of it. Kuromaru yanked the chain, freeing the blade. And then he turned, gripping a section of the rapidly shrinking chain and used it to trap Ichigo's blade. He delivered a fast left kick while simultaneously releasing his traphold and caught his blade.

Ichigo had virtually no time to prepare himself as he was besieged with sky-rending blows, each one of which required all his strength to block or deflect. Ichigo counted himself lucky that Kuromaru was merely using one hand. Otherwise, he doubted he would have the ability to deflect any of the blows, let alone block them directly.

Kuromaru swung the blade down awkwardly, holding it in a reverse-grip in his right hand. Though clearly weaker than other blows, it still took all his strength to guard against it. Kuromaru abruptly took a step forward while simultaneously thrusting with the blade. Once again, he impaled Ichigo, but this time, he swung up, carrying Ichigo on the tip of the blade and slamming im down on the opposite side. Continuing with the motion, he transferred the blade to his left hand, in a normal grip now, and stabbed the ground at an angle next to Ichigo.

A third explosion rent the air, followed by a veritable sea of black reiatsu that tore the ground apart and once more sent Ichigo flying backward into the wall. When the energy died diwn, Ichigo's eyes bugged out. The gashes covered everything in a forty-five degree angle to the point of origin, and they were tens of meters deep. Ichigo thanked himself that he'd had the intuition to negate the attack with a Getsuga Tensho.

Kuromaru gestured. "**So you see, there is no comparison between us. You cannot use your blade to its fullest abilities, and so you are permanently handicapped until you find the true purpose that drives you, master yourself, and create a fully open connection to your zanpaku-to. And finally, there is the disgraceful way that you use your one technique. Behold,**" Kuromaru raised the blade with _both_ hands this time. "**this is its true power:**

"**Getsuga-**" he swung down, sending a massive black energy wave. "**TENSHO!!!!**"

Kuromaru charged into the wave of energy, thrusting his blade with both hands. In the same way that Raiden's fist accelerated past normal limits when he performed his Cero punch, Kuromaru shot forward at impossible speed. Ichigo's eyes widened, and unknown to him, they turned black with yellow circles as Kuromaru bored in. _This is gonna hurt_-

***

Uryu lay exhausted on the floor of Ryuken's training grounds. As he lay there, he heard a scraping sound. He looked up to see Urahara poking his head through a newly made hole in the wall.

"Sorry to call on you so late at night. Actually, it's still evening. Well, your father isn't here right now. That's a good thing."

"U-Urahara? What do you want?"

"That."

"What do you mean by 'that?!'"

Urahara looked at him grimly, and then explained.

"Inoue was abducted by the arrancar?!"

"More precisely 'the arrancar under Sosuke Aizen's orders.' Kurosaki-san will probably try to go save her by himself. And seeking a way to break into Hueco Mundo, he'll probably come to my place tonight, after he is done with Kuromaru-taicho…"

"Please go home."

Urahara looked at Uryu questioningly.

"You're probably going to say you want me to go to Hueco Mundo with Kurosaki, but I can no longer associate with shinigami. Go home. If I'm going to save Inoue, I'll do it alo-!" Uryu cut himself off as he looked at Urahara queerly. "Alone? Urahara-san, what did you say a minute ago? Kurosaki is going alone?"

"…yes. Soul Society has withdrawn from this incident. Kurosaki will have to head into enemy territory alone."

"Is that right? Well then, it's a different story. Urahara-san, get me out of here."

***

As Enishi, Sayu and Raiden approached their hideout, it was abruptly torn apart by a tower of black energy. The shockwave rippled the ground and flattened the abandoned district area. At the base of the pillar of energy, Kuromaru had his blade held up against the badly burnt, but unpunctured hollow Ichigo's skin. While Kuromaru took a second to examine this, Ichigo was having a small talk with his inner hollow.

"**The fuck do you think you're doing, partner?! Going up against him without involving me?!**"

"Hey, I didn't know he'd do this and go all out-"

"**Partner, you're a real idiot if you think that was all out. You need my help for this.**"

Ichigo eyed the hollow dubiously before something else occurred to him. "Hey I just noticed. Why aren't you calling me 'king' anymore?"

The hollow grinned toothily. "**Because we're working together now, ain't we?**"

Outside, the hollow Ichigo grabbed Kuromaru's blade and flung it away with ease. Kuromaru regained his stance and cooly eyed the hollow.

"**I see that your training has yielded some measure of success,**" he commented as his blade returned to the broadsword form and he lost the black robes.

"**It'll be enough for now!**" Ichigo snapped back.

Kuromaru shook his head. "**You are nowhere near as powerful as I, though that will change someday. I suppose you still have not learned that the same weapon wielded by two different fighters wil yield two different results. Perhaps it is fitting that I use the weapon of your once-mortal enemy, Kuchiki Byakuya.**" He raised the broadsword, again holding it in a reverse-grip, point down. "**Senbon Zakura Kageyoshi.**"

The broadsword changed form again into Byakuya's zanpaku-to and sank into the ground. A very familiar row of gigantic blade extended from the ground. Ichigo snorted.

"**So what? I already beat Byakuya when he fought with his bankai.**"

:Not a smart move kid," Raiden commented as he, Enishi and Sayu settled on the ground nearby. "You really pissed of the captain now."

"Kurosaki," Enishi added emotionlessly. "his zanpakuto's secret ability is that he can copy a person's zanpaku-to if he knows the release command. For this reason, he was ranked above the Soutaicho in power."

"**Yes, Kurosaki. You defeated Byakuya when he used his bankai. However,**" Kuromaru raised his right hand. "**You have not defeated me.**" He snapped his fingers. "**Scatter…**"

The blades dispersed into a cloud of millions of tiny pink blades. A small amount coalesced into a blade that Kuromaru held in his right hand. "**And now…we dance.**" He beckoned, and all hell broke loose.

***

It just wasn't adding up for Ichigo. Because of his antics, he had apparently pissed Kuromaru enough to make him really wipe the floor with his ass. Also, he was being forced to learn on the fly how to meld his hollow and shinigami power together, from his inner hollow. Said hollow wasn't really a patient teacher to say the least, and Ichigo lost count of the times that the hollow had started to rant about how dense he was. Although, it is hard to keep count when you are busy dodging an omni-directional attack and continuously getting hit.

Kuromaru slashed his left hand at Ichigo, and a mass of petal-like blades swooped at him. Ichigo batted away the blades, but more kept coming, piling on and on until Ichigo was surrounded by a semi-solid shell. Kuromaru then charged, clenching his left hand while thrusting with his right.

The sphere imploded before Kuromaru stabbed at the center of it. There was nothing there. Ichigo had somehow left before he could be crushed. Ichigo appeared behind Kuromaru, delivering an overhand chop. Kuromaru merely raised his left hand and a mass of pink petals wrapped around Ichigo's blade. Kuromaru turned, sweeping his left arm to the side while delivering a vicious overhand slice of his own. Ichigo couldn't block it because the mass of pink blades shifted his sword to the side, opening him up for the attack.

Kuromaru carved a wide bloody gash straight down Ichigo's pale white chest. He then delivered a hip-to-shoulder diagonal cutter, creating another streak across Ichigo's hollow skin. Then he spun to the left, slashing a third time before shoving outward with his sword hand. As he did so, a stream of pink lifted Ichigo off his feet and propelled him into the far wall. Ichigo managed to escape before the stream impacted the wall and dispersed like a fluid.

"Agh! Rrrrrrgh!" Ichigo growled as he took a small moment to assess his wounds. Kuromaru certainly was no Byakuya. Byakuya had been an arrogant aristocratic fighter with a sense of honor. Kuromaru had no scruples in overwhelming him in a multi-front attack. Ichigo remembered how he just couldn't shift his blade around, and his blade was overwhelmingly pushed to the side. Byakuya hadn't used any such technique. From what he had seen, he simply barraged with large masses of petals that couldn't be finely controlled. That was it! Control! Byakuya had little real control over his bankai, a disadvantage with an all-encompassing weapon, but Kuromaru had the concentration necessary to use it properly. Ichigo gripped his blade tighter. Perhaps the answer was to simply overwhelm his concentration.

"**Are you finished yet, Kurosaki?**"

Ichigo looked over and raised his blade. "No." Then he swept the ground from behind himself with the blade. "GETSUGA TENSHO!"

A wave-like blast of energy swept the ground, racing toward Kuromaru. Ichigo ran into his own attack, readying a thrust, and accelerating beyond what he could normally do.

Kuromaru sighed, raised his own blade, and slashed down at the incoming wave. A massive stream of pink petals crashed down on top of it before sweeping away and revealing Ichigo charging pell-mell towards him. He then spun to the right. When he did so, he sidestepped Ichigo's mad rush and puched him forward even harder. He spun once before he shoved outward with his sword hand. A last stream of pink nailed Ichigo to the wall. Kuromaru then stabbed the blade high above his head before flourishing it and slashing to his side.

**SHRAK!** Two solid streams of pink crossed over Ichigo's chest, leaving behind a huge x-shaped gash. Ichigo collapsed, unable to continue. Kuromaru walked up to him and knelt. "**At your level, I am beyond your reach both literally and figuratively. If you wanted to learn something from me today, I hope you found a lesson in this beating.**" He then looked up at Enishi. "**Heal him and send him to Urahara. You two, let us repair this area.**"

Ichigo left wincing from his newly healed wounds while Sayu, Raiden and Kuromaru were already halfway done with fixing the area. His eyes still burned with desire. _Maybe I can't beat you yet, but someday, I will._

When he arrived at Urahara's basement, he found said man waiting with a smirk. "Well now, are we ready to leave?"

**So how do you like the action? Review please!**


	26. Chapter 25

**This is pretty much a direct copy of the actual chapter. It will take a while before I get to some new and original stuff. You won't see Kuromaru and company for a while except for maybe some comic outtakes. Anyway, enjoy the rehashing!**

Chapter Twenty-five: Visitors

Urahara stood on one of two large wooden sticks protruding from rocky faces of the cliff under his shop.

"In my right hand," he called out. "I hold the stone that connects the borders of worlds. In my left hand, I hold the blade that binds existence. The black-haired shepherd, the seat of the noose, a bank of clouds comes, striking us and the crested abyss." He tapped his cane sword on the shaft, channeling energy into it. A line of energy spanned the two shafts before it widened to reveal the garganta.

"This is the hole the arrancar use to come and go. It is known as the garganta. There is no pathway inside it, just a turbulent flow of spirit particles swirling about. Make a foothold from those and use it to move forward. If you head toward the darkness, you should arrive in Hueco Mundo."

"Understood…Urahara-san?"

Urahara eyed Ichigo expectantly while Ichigo tried to form the words. He was remembering an encounter in school a few days ago…

_Flashback_

_"Ichigoooooooooo! Long time no see-HEE!"_

_"It really has been a while!" Mizuiro said as he kept one foot on the back of Keigo's head. "What have you been doing? I was really worried. And you weren't answering your phone, either."_

_"Yeah, sorry. I was really busy," Ichigo shrugged sheepishly._

_Mizuiro looked at him oddly before he remembered something. "Oh that's right. I managed to get tickets to the sneak preview of Bad Shield 2 that we were talking about before. Here you go!"_

_Ichigo held them up and asked "when was this sneak preview again?"_

_"Huh? Oh it's on December fifth."_

_"Got it. Thanks. I'll be back by then Mizuiro." Ichigo walked off. Mizuiro started to call after him, but was interrupted by Tatsuki._

_"ICHIGO!"_

_Ichigo turned about slowly. "What is it, Tatsuki?"_

_"Orihime's not here! Not at her house, not anywhere! Yesterday her presence disappeared. I've been looking everywhere for her since then. Ichigo, you know where Orihime is, don't you?"_

_Ichigo tried to brush it off. "What the hell?! Why would I know? Besides are you sure she's really gone? Go try looking for her again-" Big mistake._

_"DON'T GIVE ME THAT SHIT!!" Tatsuki screamed at him as she grabbed his shirt. "The presence that I've felt from her all along is gone, the presence I fell when she's close! Lately it's been diminished like it's behind a wall or something, but yesterday even that vanished! You know something, don't you! Ichigo!!"_

_"You don't give up! I told you I don't know anything! Have you gone nuts?! Listen to yourself!!"_

_"You think I don't know anything, right?" Ichigo's eyes widened. "I saw you in that black kimono, fighting with that srange group. Enough already. Tell me everything that you've been hiding, Ichigo…"_

_Ichigo looked away. "It's…none of your business-"_

_**DOOF! KREESH!**__ Tatsuki was pulled back by Keigo as Mizuiro ran up to Ichigo._

_"What the hell-"_

_"WHAT AM I TO YOU?! AREN'T I YOUR FRIEND?! AREN'T I YOUR ALLY?!" she howled at him. "I've seen you through so many hard times! I've helpd you so many times! You don't-" she sobbed at him. "you don't hide things from someone like that…"_

_"You idiot…" Keigo muttered._

_"Ichigo-" Misuiro started as Ichigo stood up._

_"I'm sorry. Keigo, Mizuiro, take care of Tatsuki. From now on," Ichigo turned away. "don't associate with me."_

_Flashback end_

"…please take care of my family. Tell them something so that they don't worry.

Urahara eyed him before replying. "Alright. And your friends?"

"…I'll apologize to them when I get back."

"Understood."

Ichigo turned his thoughts to the task at hand. "Let's go!" Together, he, Chad and Uryu disappeared into the garganta.

***

Ryuuken opened the door to his training grounds, having been there the whole time. He walked over to where Uryu had left a letter of farewell. "Hmm…"

"Yo. Looks like he got away, Ishida."

Ryuuken turned. "How did you get in here, Kurosaki?"

"Huh? That's the first time you've called me that, isn't it? What kind of change of attitude is this?"

"Answer the question. I'm asking how you got in…that form. Did your powers return?"

"I guess so. Looks great, right?"

"…I'm gonna be sick."

"Thanks for that…not gonna read it? His farewell letter?"

"No point. Even if I don't read it, I know what it says."

"You let him go huh?"

"That's none of your concern. I returned his quincy powers to him. Whether he uses them or kills them is up to him, as well as whether he lives or dies."

"Heh, You're a pretty bad dad," Isshin commented as he sat down against one of the walls.

"Better than you're doing," Ryuuken retorted.

"Yeah, I know that…"

***

A surge of spiritual pressure thundered through Las Noches as Ichigo and company exited the garganta and into Hueco Mundo.

"Hmm, so they're here," Aizen commented idly.

Ichigo looked around. "What the hell? Isn't Hueco Mundo supposed to be messier?"

"Lower your voice Kurosaki. We should hide ourselves immediately-"

"Who the hell are you guys?"

All three turned to see a hollow poking his head around the corner. Chad and Uryu ran, grabbing Ichigo as they went.

"Wha?! Why are we running?!"

"Are you stupid, Kurosaki? If we fought back there, what would happen if it collapsed on us?"

"Maybe it wouldn't! There's no signs that-"

"Look around! We're in a long corridor with no windows!"

"…and?"

"And that means we're underground! We need a wider space!"

They reached a large round chamber. "Stairs!" Uryu exclaimed. "I'll check it out and see if it leads-"

He was cut off as a second hollow crashed down in front of him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Damn it!"

They turned to see the first hollow blocking off the way they came.

"It seems we've been flanked. Very well…"

Chad shoved Ichigo to the side. "Ichigo, let us handle this."

Ichigo stood and watched in blank amazement as Chad and Uryu demolished the two hollows with ease.

"Tell Aizen that it is not the shinigami he should fear, but the Quincy."

"A ha ha ha ha! Let me tell you something, Quincy! We follow Aizen because he has no fear. Those who are fearful are attracted to those who lack it utterly. You have no chance against Aizen-sama!"

The building started to shake, and chunks fell from the walls and ceiling.

"It's collapsing! Get out now!" The three managed to scramble up the stairway before the building finally caved. Ichigo got up and looked around. "This is Hueco Mundo? It sure seems lonely."

"There are plants. But they're withered," Chad commented.

"No," Uryu corrected. "They're made of a quartz-like substance."

"Look over there!" Ichigo and Uryu followed Chad's gaze.

"Holy-!"

"A castle, or a palace? Is this the Las Noches the other guys mentioned?"

"It' friggin' huge!"

"Look! Those quartz trees are like needles!"

"The sense of distance seems weird," Chad stated. "The real thing is probably much larger."

"It's a safe bet that Inoue is inside there somewhere."

"Probably. There doesn't seem to be any other place they could hide her."

"Let's go!"

***

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Espada, we are under attack. But first, shall we have some tea?"

Aizen watched calmly as the Espada drank before turning slightly to Tosen. "Kaname, visuals if you please."

Tosen nodded and flipped a switch. A hole in the table opened up and revealed a standing image of Ichigo, Chad and Uryu running toward Las Noches.

"There are three intruders this time around. They are Ishida Uryu, Sado Yasutora, and Kurosaki Ichigo."

Grimmjow's eyes widened at the last one.

"These are our enemies?" Aaroniero Arrurueire muttered.

"What the?" Barragan exclaimed. "When you said we were under attack, I wondered what kind of people they were. But they're still youngsters."

"They're not the least bit arousing," Szayel sneered.

"Do not take them lightly," Aizen warned with a slight smile. "These are the humans formerly known as "ryoka," who, with just four people, marched into Soul Society and challenged the Gotei Thirteen to battle.

"Four people?" Zommari Leroux commented. "They're short one. Who's missing?"

"Inoue Orihime."

"Heh, so they came to save their friend right?" Nnoitra grinned. "That's great, but they look so weak."

"Did you not hear Aizen-sama?" Halibel looked at him. "I believe he said not to take them lightly."

Grimmjow stood up.

"Grimmjow, where are you going?" Tosen queried.

"To kill them. It's best to crush insects quickly once they've gotten inside right?"

"Aizen-sama hasn't given any orders yet. Go back."

"It's on Aizen-sama's behalf that I'm gonna go crush them!"

"Grimmjow…" Aizen called.

"…yes sir?"

"I am pleased that you would mobilize on my behalf, but I am still in the middle of talking. For now would you please return to your seat?"

Grimmjow stood where he was.

"What's wrong? I can't hear you, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques," Aizen stated as he crushed Grimmjow under his spiritual pressure. "I see you've understood me," he continued as Grimmjow recovered his breath from his position, kneeling on the floor. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Espada, as you can see, there are three enemies. Underestimating them would be foolis, but there is no need to make a fuss either. Each of you return to your chambers and wait for them to come to you. Do not fear. As long as you walk with me, there will be no enemies in our way." Aizen beckoned with his hand and gestured for them to do so. Each left to make preparations for the imminent arrival of their enemies.

***

Sayu walked over to Kuromaru. "Finished!" she chirped.

The other three turned to look at her section of the mess that she had cleaned up. "What the fuck?! Wasn't it a trash pile just twenty minutes ago?" Raiden exclaimed.

The section was literally sparkling, with absolutely no trace of debris and trash. It seemed like an oasis amidst a disaster area.

Enishi looked over at Sayu, who merely shrugged while Kuromaru walked over to the area. "Hey! You _are_ looking at the resident speed demon!"

"**While you are indeed fast, the physical aspect apparently doesn't extend upstairs for you,**" Kuromaru called. He bent down and tugged out a microscopic sliver. The entire quarter-square area collapsed back into the piles of debris.

"You forgot to bind the pieces together," Enishi said. "The captain is right. You _are_ slow."

Kuromaru shook his head as Sayu instantly flattened Enishi, demanding that the "little ice midget" take back what he said.


	27. Chapter 26

**I'm sorry this took so long, but I had tons of homework and I just got over the worst cold ever. I couldn't fucking breathe! Anyway, enjoy.**

Chapter Twenty-six: The parting of ways

He really should be used to keeping strange company, Ichigo told himself. After all, he routinely mixed up with hollows, shinigami, a self-admitted perverted shopkeeper, a princess, a Quincy, a mod-soul, and arrancar. Still, it was kind of a weird group that he was tagging along with. While on the way, he, Uryu and Chad had staggered across an odd "family" of arrancar that was the most mismatched group of people he had ever seen. The only thing they seemed to have in common was that they were hollow in nature. There was Nel, her two brothers, Dondochakka and Pesche, and a pet worm, Babawawa, who all were currently riding. Nel was a small child-like arrancar with a broken mask on her head. Pesche seemed to be wearing the skull of a cow. Dondochakka resembled a totem figure given life. But that wasn't all.

Rukia and Renji had shown up later, saving the odd partnership from a huge sand guardian hollow and berating Ichigo for not having the patience to wait.

"Why the hell didn't you wait for us to come back?! Don't you trust us?! Aren't I your ally, Ichigo?!" Rukia had screamed at him.

The ragtag group came to the foot of Las Noches and stared at the entrance. Ichigo took a deep breath and gathered himself.

"Okay, we're here." He turned to face the hollows. "Nel, Pesche, Dondachakka, thanks for the help. I think you should get out of here, or you'll get in trouble."

"Itsyugo!"

"What do you mean?" Pesche demanded. "We can't go back out there! The other hollows will make it really hard on us because we helped you!"

Rukia was confused. "Then what are you going to do?"

Dondochakka and Pesche looked at Nel, who looked at Ichigo. Ichigo sighed.

"I'm sorry, but it will be even more dangerous where we're going."

"B-but Itsyugo! Aizen-sama is in der! He's stwong! Y-you'll get hurt!"

Ichigo smiled comfortingly. "Hey, don't worry about us." He indicated Chad, Uryu, Rukia and Renji. "We're strong too."

And without further ado, the five turned and raced down the hall. Pesche and Dondochakka stood still, watching them vanish into the depths.

"Idiots. They're going to get killed for sure…"

"Nel, Nel what are you-"

Nel was racing after them into Las Noches.

"W-wait!"

With little choice in the matter, the hollows followed Ichigo and company into the depths of Aizen's palace.

***

They came to a dilemma when the corridor ended at a large chamber with five paths branching off. Predictably, Ichigo made the call.

"It looks like we'll have to split up."

The others nodded and without further thought, they diverged down their different paths.

Nel entered the room and looked in awe at how large the room actually was before she turned toward the exact pathway that Ichigo had went. She didn't know why, but something seemed to be calling her down that path. Without hesitation, she sped down that hallway leaving Pesche and Dondachakka to later wonder where the hell she went.

***

A short while later, Aizen was greeted by one of the messenger arrancar in his throne room.

"Reporting, Aizen-sama."

"Go ahead."

"Hai. One of the intruders, the ryoka Kurosaki Ichigo, defeated the Privaron Espada 103 and narrowly avoided the Exequias."

"I see. I'm rather disappointed that it took so long for him to be defeated, but no matter."

"Aizen-sama?"

"However," Aizen turned his attention back on the hapless arrancar. "You have left something out of your report. Who gave the order to mobilize the Exeqias?"

"A-ah-"

"Hmm," he brought the brunt of his spiritual pressure to bear on the unfortunate hollow. "is it so hard to answer the question? Who gave the order?"

"I did, Aizen-sama."

Aizen turned to see Szayel standing in the doorway of the room. Seeing an opportunity, the messenger wisely made his escape.

"Forgive me Aizen-sama!" Szayel explained as he knelt. "I was only attempting to prevent his escape, and so I ordered them to move in."

Aizen regarded him before he turned his back. "No. That is quite alright, Szayel. As long as you had a reason, it is fine." Szayel breathed a sigh of relief and stood up. But before he could leave, "And has your investigation of the reiatsu signatures from the battle revealed anything useful?"

Szayel stiffened in surprise before blurting out "Y-yes."

Aizen sat back down. "Then you are dismissed."

"Hai."

***

He really didn't have any luck with women, Uryu told himself as he dodged an attack from the madly cackling witch. Hey, she admitted that she was one in her name, Cirucci Thunder_witch_.

It had been his tactical mistake to blindly charge down the hall and into the room before even attempting to see whether an enemy was stationed in there. It was a mistake normally attributed to that dolt Kurosaki.

**KRAK!** "Tch. Stop moving and die, will you?!"

"Why would I do that? Isn't the point of dodging to avoid getting hit by your attacks?"

"Shut up!"

Uryu smirked. _Easily put off, a sure sign of an emotional hothead._ His smirk vanished when he literally ran into Pesche.

"OUCH!"

"What the-"

"Nel?! Where's Nel?!"

"How should I know, and weren't you supposed to stay outside?"

"Nel ran in here, and I tried to find her by following her trail, but I lost it and-"

Uryu rolled his eyes. _Lost her, like I couldn't tell_…

"Hey, who the hell is that? An ally?"

Uryu pushed up his glasses. "I've never laid eyes on him before."

Pesche stupidly cried out "WHAT?!" and Cirucci slashed her whip at him.

"Idiot!" Uryu shouted. "I said I didn't know you so that she wouldn't attack you!"

"Well I didn't know-OW!"

"You know," Cirucci called as she recoiled her whip from striking Pesche on the ass. "it's not really polite to ignore your host."

Uryu turned and readied a volley. "You shouldn't be talking." The hail of arrows passed through where she had been. "It's also not polite to attack your guests."

"Tch. You're not guests. You're intruders."

"You're not making sense! You just said you were our host, and now you say we're not your guests?"

"Just shut up and die!"

Uryu shook his head as Cirucci gave chase, threw some ginto tubes behind him and then gestured. "The silver whip falls and strikes the five-handed stone floor! Gritz!"

Without warning, a five cornered cloth wrapped around the startled arrancar, trapping her. Uryu quickly gathered as much reishi as he could, focused it, and then fired right at the center, creating a large explosion.

"Y-you did it!" Pesche exclaimed.

Uryu shook his head. "No I didn't. She's still alive."

"Damn you human! You'll pay! Rip off, Golondrina!"

Uryu was caught off guard from the explosive increase in her reiatsu, and the cloud of dust parted to reveal her in her released form, that of a moth-like creature with moonscales that composed her wings. Said scales vibrated with an audible hum as she spread them in preparation to lunge.

"Now you die!"

Yep. He really didn't have any luck with the opposite sex.

***

"Aw come on, Sayu! Didn't we just finish cleaning this yesterday?"

"But Raiden, it's sooo boring! It's just white and, um, more white!"

Enishi looked on in obvious disinterest. "And why am I here?"

"Enishi-kun," Sayu whined plaintatively. "don't you think it would be better around here if we decorated this room? It's so boring and I can't take it!"

"…would you even listen if I said no?"

Raiden looked at him. "Nope, she probably woudn't."

"Waaah! Enishi's mean!"

"Tch. Fine, if you'll stop bugging me. Jeez…all I wanted to do today was sit back and think."

Grumbling, Enishi walked into the center of the (very-recently-repaired-and-futilely-reinforced) sub-basement before he took his spear, reversed it, and stabbed the point into the ground. Ice spread in glistening crystal sheets that made amazingly smooth transitions to stalagmite-like formations that protruded from the ground. In a perfect geometrical arrangement, the central area was rimmed with identical formations that positively overwhelmed the eyes with the vibrant displays of refracted light. (where said light originated remains a mystery) That task done, he yanked the spear out of the ground and walked right past a stunned brother and sister while muttering "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to be _alone_ for the rest of the day."

Raiden shook it off first. "Show off! That's nothing compared to this!" Raiden leapt into the central area and raised his axe, which exploded into flame. Waves of flaming energy rolled outward and attatched to the nigh-unmeltable ice that Enishi had created, covering everything in multicolored fire. He exited and smirked at Sayu. "Beat that!"

Sayu answered by creating lightning clouds that continuously showered electrical displays on the flaming-yet-icy display. And then she prepared to swing her blade in preparation to make twisters-

"Uh, Sayu, I really don't think you should-"

"Hey! It's my turn, and I'm doing it my way!"

Raiden reviewed the situation. A large display of flames, and a crazy sister who was about to unleash powerful windstorms, in a confined space. Something told him that he should be seeking shelter, but there was none.

"Okay! Here goes!"

"W-wait! Don't-"

Too late. Sayu let loose a concentrated blast of wind, which curled into a twister, which sucked up the flame along with vast quantities of oxygen. And when large masses of oxygen meet open chaotic swirling flame…things go boom.

***

Urahara and Yoruichi were accompanying Kuromaru as they discussed events long past when they arrived at the sub basement. And stopped dead in their tracks.

"Holy-!"

"The fuck happened here?"

The sight that met them was a large mass of somewhat distorted ice, covered in multi-hued flame and large scorch marks of varying intensity.

Kuromaru adhered his right hand to his forehead while the other two stared at the scene in disbelief. Then Urahara's face took on a curious expression. He leapt over it and then stared down from overhead.

"Hey! If you look at it this way, it's a perfect model of the Chaos Theory!"

"A model of what?" Yoruichi asked.

"Chaos Theory. It's a general theory that explains randomness in the universe. Most illustrated models are fractals because of the infinite pathways things have and, well, it's pure chaos."

Kuromaru shook his head and growled "**That is exactly what these three put me through every day: chaos.**"

Yoruichi and Urahara chuckled sympathetically.

**The next one might also take a while, so please bear with me. Review!**


	28. Chapter 27

**I had a huge case of writers block, and a crapload of homework. Plus, I was studying for AP classes and SATs. Sorry for the long wait.**

Chapter Twenty-seven: Mercy

Cirucci swooped down on Uryu and Pesche, the latter of whom screamed unintelligibly as he dodged her bladed arms.

"Tch! Stop moving, pest!"

"I'm afraid I cannot do that," Uryu replied as he fingered a long and thin white object.

"I'm going to skewer you!" she called as she lunged.

"I cannot allow you to do that," Uryu answered as he turned around and swept the object, which was now emitting a bluish-white aura in the shape of a blade, in front of himself, drawing blood from the surprised Privaron Espada's arm.

"What the-!" she uttered as she drew back.

"I always come prepared with a backup for close range," Uryu replied. "This is a Seele Schnieder, a weapon of the Quincies. As an archer, my prime weakness is close combat engagements. This makes up for it, because I now have a weapon with which to face you with, apart from this." He raised his bow and fired a barrage. The continuous thudding of arrows sounded like a rain of blows as they descended on the giant mothlike arrancar. Uryu stopped along with Peche, who was gasping for breath, and waited to see what would come of it. Finally, the dust cleared.

"You're the first person to force me to do this, human! HAAAAH!" In a move that confounded the bespectacled archer, Cirucci tore off the scales of her wings. She sighed as she relaxed from the pain of tearing her wings.

"Why did you do that? How does that benefit you?"

Cirucci nodded toward the fallen scales. "My scales consume a lot of energy, and there is no use pouring it off into them if they cannot benefit me. Besides, if your little blade could cut my arm, it would easily destroy my scales. This way, I can personally use more of my power, and I won't have to worry about your stick!"

Uryu snorted. "How rude. It is not a stick, but a sophisticated Quincy artifact."

"Whatever!" she snarled as she lunged, intending to cleave him with the blade extending from her head. All she succeeded in doing was slamming into the Seele Schnieder, which cleaved deeply into the blade on her head.

"What?!"

"As I said," Uryu said with maddening calm. "it is not a stick, but a sophisticated Quincy artifact. Our powers are based on the availability of ambient reishi particles, and this blade vibrates three million times a second as it works to disintegrate any reishi composed substance that it comes into contact with, thus allowing us to use our powers more easily. Of course it would cut you, because all souls are composed of reishi. And you haven't taken note of one pertinent fact. We Quincies never use anything but bows." Uryu readied the Seele Schnieder and pointed it at Cirucci's chest. "Mala suerte, arrancar."

The shot blasted Cirucci into the wall, nailing her there as cracks appeared in her skin before it shattered to reveal her humanoid shape. The Seele Schnieder retracted and the arrancar slumped on the ground. Uryu appeared, feet in front of her face.

"I finally understand why my father said I was a failure. Even this action proved it. Rather than killing you outright, I simply removed your powers. It's rather intriguing how similar hollows and shinigami are, because I just destroyed your Saketsu and Hakusui in the same manner that I would a shinigami." Uryu continued to look down. "I suppose I could end it right now, but I am not my father. I'll let you live. If being a true Quincy means that I kill all enemies in cold blood, then I refuse to be one. And this is where we say goodbye."

Uryu turned, grabbed a protesting Pesche, and fled down the nearest tunnel, leaving a paralyzed Cirucci to deal with the Exequias.

"Damn it…"

***

Aizen gazed at the feed which replayed the "fight" between them. "Hmm, interesting." He mentally updated the information he had on Quincies. Perhaps there was a way to adapt those same abilities to his own purposes.

***

Chad's mad dash down the hallway was interrupted by two things. One was a wall, and the other was a huge blast of reiatsu. He automatically stopped and looked around for the source, before the arrancar's action made searching completely unnecessary.

"Hmm, so a human made it this far into Las Noches? Yeesh. Security has certainly declined."

Chad turned to face the arrancar, who had a ridiculously large afro. "No, I was just strong enough to pass through."

The arrancar inclined his head. "I see," he then blurred into existence behind Chad. "but are you strong enough to pass through me, Gantenbein Mosqueda, Arrancar number 107?"

Chad brought his right arm up just in time to block, but he was still propelled by the kick into the far wall. He pulled himself out of the crater and clenched his fist. "We shall see."

He charged at the arrancar and swung a hard right uppercut that Gantenbein sidestepped before he pivoted and delivered a hard jab that also missed.

"You are too slow, boy. No human's techniques can match with Sonido," Gantenbein chided as he once again materialized behind Chad and plowed him into a column with a hard left grass-cutter leg sweep. Chad wordlessly got back up and charged again.

"You just don't get it. Very well," The arrancar delivered a jab to Chad's stomach. "Uno." He followed it up with a right knee to the face. Chad arched backward, blood flying from his mouth. "Dos." Gantenbein reappeared above Chad as he flew backward. "Ciento." Chad took a meteor punch that smashed his face into the ground below. He lay in the crater while the former espada stood over him. "Come on, boy. I know you are holding back. It's no honor beating up someone who won't fight back."

The answer was an explosive column of reiatsu, and Chad got back on his feet. "Sorry. It wasn't that I've been holding back. It's because my powers were disrupted by coming to Hueco Mundo. It wasn't until you hit me that they finally settled, and I figured it out. My powers are less like a Shimigami's or a Quincy's, and more like you hollows. But now, I can use my full power in it's true form, with the spirit of my abuelo flowing through my right arm," The column of light dissipated to reveal Chad's arm, which had taken on a shield like appearance with an odd set of red jaws emblazoned on it. "Brazo Derecha de Gigante."

Gantenbein stared as the dust settled, before a small smile graced his face. "I see. So now, we battle for real."

Chad stood straight up and looked at him. "Yes, now we fight."

***

Raiden and Sayu tiptoed over to Enishi's (locked in every way imagineable) room and prepared for the upcoming torture. Sayu giggled as Raiden carefully neutralized the sealed door and opened it noiselessly. Finally, he winked at her and she entered to find Enishi staring vacantly at the ceiling with a large jug of sake and some small cups nearby, apparently too deep in thought to notice her entrance.

Now that he had time to think about it, something was up with the captain. The man who had trained them all wouldn't stoop to mere petty revenge just for its own sake. There had to be another reason, something that would ultimately serve a much larger purpose-

"HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Enishi groaned. Great, just what he needed, his perpetually annoying sister.

"What do you want Sayu? And how did you get in here?"

"Raiden let me in!"

"…great. Now can you just leave me alone?"

"Kill joy! Come on! Have some fun! Hey I know! I just learned this new song! Wanna hear it?"

"No…please no."

It was too late. Sayu immediately started yelling "I KNOW A SONG THAT GET'S ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES! EVERYBODY'S NERVES! EVERYBODY'S NERVES! I KNOW A SONG THAT GET'S ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES AND THIS IS HOW IT GOES! DUN DUN DUN!

"I KNOW A SONG THAT GET'S ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES! EVERYBODY'S NERVES! EVERYBODY'S NERVES! I KNOW A SONG THAT GET'S ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES AND THIS IS HOW IT GOES! DUN DUN DUN!

"I KNOW A SONG THAT GET'S ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES! EVERYBODY'S NERVES! EVERYBODY'S NERVES! I KNOW A SONG THAT GET'S ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES AND THIS IS HOW IT GOES! DUN DUN DUN!

"I KNOW A SONG THAT GET'S ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES! EVERYBODY'S NERVES! EVERYBODY'S NERVES! I KNOW A SONG THAT GET'S ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES AND THIS IS HOW IT GOES! DUN DUN DUN!

"I KNOW A SONG THAT-"

***

From the sub-basement, and under many sound-proofed barriers, Kuromaru sat meditating with his zanpaku-to when he heard loud tortured screaming, a sing-song voice, and some gut-busting laughter. This was immediately followed by "YOU!!" an explosion and several other violent sounds, screams of fear, and the drumming of running feet. And then from one side of the sub-basement, Sayu ran past screaming at the top of her lungs and flapping her arms like an idiot followed by a hail of reishi arrows that appeared to be homing in on her. Next, Raiden raced by ducking and dodging a rain of icy needles and his own flaming axe with Enishi trailing behind, swearing and yelling all sorts of improbable threats, some of which involved the hole of a menos grande, a kido spell, a garganta and Kuromaru's broadsword. The odd caravan of three raced across the cavernous room and past an unmoving Kuromaru and through the door at the other end. Kuromaru turned his head slightly with a wondering air, before shrugging and resuming his meditation.

**Coming up soon, Soul Society Personnel Files for the four rogue captains. I'll post them at the end of the next few chapters. Review!**


	29. Chapter 28

**I'm really sorry that this took so long to do. I was busy with homework, exam studies and working off a bad leg from a soccer accident. Now that school's out, I'll be able to work on this a lot more. Enjoy the long-overdue chapter!**

Chapter Twenty-eight: A Proposition

At some hidden signal, Chad and Gantenbein leapt forward and threw a punch at each other. Gantenbein's missed altogether while Chad did not miss. A resounding explosion rang out through the hall as the former espada was rocketed out of the resulting dust cloud, now sporting a large bruise across the face.

_What?! But he couldn't match my speed before! How did he get this powerful in such a short time?_

He had no more time to ponder as a blast of energy raced out of the dust cloud at him. He dodged and then raced at Chad and readied a kick from the side. Chad simply raised the shield on his arm and stopped the attack cold.

"Is that it? Hm, too bad."

Gantenbein was blasted away as blue energy exploded from the contact point.

_Damn it! I can't land a blow, and his strength shot up through the roof. At least he can't jump up here-_

His musings were cut off as Chad leapt up to meet him with a hard upper cut that arched him backward. Chad then gathered energy in his fist in preparation for the blow.

"El Directo."

Gantenbein was smashed into the ground from the downward punch and the energy blast. Chad landed and began walking toward him.

"It's over."

Gantenbein rose from the crater. "Oh no, it is far from over. Right, Dragula?"

Energy erupted and surrounded the Privaron Espada while Chad stopped and looked on. When the swirling energy cleared, his arms were covered in a ridiculously large armor that bore great resemblance to an armadillo, and he had gained a tail with the same armor. His fist claws had changed to become skull mouths that were smoking ominously.

"Do not get cocky, boy. If you wield the power of a giant, then I command the power of a demon. Let us see if you can handle this!" Gantenbein lowered his headpiece, locked his fists together in front of him and brought his tail up where it began to pour energy into a large swirling ball in front of his fists. "May god forgive us."

The ball fired and exploded when it crashed into Chad, throwing up a large dust cloud. Gantenbein raised his eyeshield in disbelief as the dust cleared.

"Sorry, but I forgot to tell you something. My abuelo taught me how to protect, not to attack. My right arm is a defensive power. It is my left arm that I use for attack," The arrancar stared at said arm, now white with a red line running down the center, and with a spike protruding from the shoulder. "Brazo Izquierdo del Diablo."

The arrancar glanced at it once more, before his mouth curved into a smirk. "Diablo? That's quite a name. I hope you can live up to it, Sado Yasutora!" He began to pour energy into a second much larger ball between his fists before he fired it at Chad with a punch from his right arm. Chad simply grabbed the ball with his left hand and crushed it out of existence before he dashed forward and reappeared in front of the stunned Gantenbein. His left hand was raised behind him and energy began to gather at his fingertips before he formed a closed fist.

"La Muerte."

The punch blew him into the wall where a massive array of cracks formed a skull on the wall before it shattered, opening to the inside of the large dome. Gantenbein's released form shattered and he lay, barely conscious, on the ground. Chad walked over and knelt beside him.

"Thank you, Gantenbein Mosqueda. Because of you, I was able to unlock my full potential. For that, I will spare your life, and pray for your good fortune."

He then got up, but only took two steps before-

"Heh, so you're the first one to get here?"

Chad whirled around and smashed his left fist into Nnoitra's chest.

"What? That was it? Psch."

Nnoitra simply grabbed the huge, circlet blade on his back and ripped Chad a huge bloody streak down his chest.

"…wow. The insect survived that."

"So it seems, Nnoitra-sama," Tesla replied.

"Looks like we'll have to fix that."

Nnoitra rasied his weapon again, but before he could bring it down, it abruptly vanished.

"The fuck?"

"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to kill him yet," Sayu called from several yards away as she balanced the huge staff weapon on her finger.

"The crazy-ass bitch? Why are you here?" Nnoitra growled.

Sayu ignored the insult. "I have an offer to make with you, insect, and I wouldn't be doing this except for the fact my captain ordered me to do this."

Nnoitra was puzzeled. This didn't seem like that ditsy captain from before. Instead of a singsong voice, she spoke with little emotion at all, and her posture dictated that she was all business.

"Yeah yeah, so what?"

"I serve someone greater than Aizen, and it will be due to him that Aizen ultimately fails. I am offering you a place on the winning side-"

"Like hell, bitch! You think I'm going to be working under you-"

Nnoitra was cut off as Sayu blurred into view behind him, holding her blade at his throat. "If you interrupt me once more, your arms will part company with your shoulders, and your head will follow suit with respect to your neck. Be silent."

"I ain't gonna listen! I'm not working with you even if hell freezes over!"

"I see…" she replied. "In that case, Hitoya Arashi (Storm Prison)."

Lightning flashed and linked together to form a cage while a freezing cold wind gusted around both Tesla and Nnoitra.

"I will not allow you to remain here. Daikaze Taihou (Great wind cannon)."

"DAMN YOU BIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch……….." Nnoitra's curse faded as the prison was blasted into the far distance.

***

Szayel turned when he heard a sound behind him in his lab.

"Hmm, I don't know how you got in here, but you will regret-"

"Save the speech for someone within the realm of possibility for you to defeat," Enishi cut him off. "Besides, I'm not here to fight with you. I'm here to make you an offer."

Szayel glared at him. "And is there any reason I should consider your offer?"

"One, you're lucky I'm making this offer. Two, in the time it takes you to reach for that alarm button, I could slice you into molecules if I want. Three, whilst you serve Aizen, I represent someone greater than he."

"Let me guess," Szayel spoke silkily. "you are here to see if I am willing to join forces with you, correct?"

Enishi nodded.

"I refuse. I will not have my research toward perfection disrupted when I am so close to achieving it. I remain on Aizen-sama's side."

Enishi inclined his head. "Very well. In that case, I won't detain you from your research toward _perfection_" he spoke the word with the slightest hint of utter disgust. "any longer."

"Ah, but I cannot allow you to leave," Szayel called as several twisted and deformed creatures emerged from the walls and surrounded Enishi. "Aizen-sama delegated to the Espada the task of killing all intruders."

The mutated hollows suddenly crystallized before shattering in the wake of a halo of bluish energy. "And what" Enishi calmly replied. "gives you the false idea that you can actually stop me, let alone finish me?" And the short former captain turned to an ice sculpture, the real one having vacated ten seconds before.

***

Aaroniero Arrurueire stood on the apex of the roof of his chambers, awaiting the arrival of one emotionally fragile Kuchiki, when a ring of flame erupted on the roof behind him. Rising from it as though from a gate to hell, Raiden emerged bearing no sign of the contained inferno as the ninth Espada turned in surprise.

_"Who are you-"_ **"-and what are you doing here?"**

"The name's Raiden, and I'm here to offer you a place on the winning side."

_"Winning-"_ **"-side?"**

"My captain is stronger that Aizen will ever be, with his mentality that is," Raiden muttered the last part to himself. "I am giving you a chance on his behalf to join us."

_"You ask us-"_ **"-to betray Aizen-sama,"** _"the one who-"_ **"-gave life to us?"**

"I guess I can add 'slow upstairs' to your file, along with 'multiple-personality disorder,' " Raiden growled. "Should I just assume, for the sake of brevity, that you will not join us? And I can't believe I just said that word..." he muttered.

_"We owe him-"_ **"-our life."**

Raiden sighed. "Figures. Oh well, I guess it ws too much to hope for for one of Aizen's creations." And then he turned to leave, but Aaroniero stepped in front of him.

_"We cannot-"_ **"-allow you to leave."** _"You are an intruder-"_ **"-and a threat to Aizen-sama."**

A wave of fire blasted him away was Raiden stepped into a circular pyre. "Instead of stating the obvious, focus on something of more immediate concern, like that violet-haired midget coming to your doorstep. I am done here, and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

With that, Aaroniero could only watch as the ex-captain disappeared. Cursing mentally, he turned back to see that Rukia was at his doorstep. Well, he could dispose of this annoyance first before he let Aizen-sama know of the intruder. Yes, that would be proper.

***

Rukia was increasingly on guard as she crossed the huge walkway. The building ahead was obviously the home of a powerful being, and she wasn't sure she could deal with it. Something drew here there, however. Something faint, yet disturbingly familiar. She closed the distance and approached the door, tentatively sliding it open. The room inside was dark, and became even more so when the door slammed shut of its own accord. She made it to the center of the room before she was stopped by a hauntingly familiar voice.

"So you came. How nice to see you again, Rukia."

Rukia whirled in disbelief and horror. "Kaien-dono-!"

**Yeah, I know that this is different from the canon, but I just couldn't resist this kind of a shocker for poor Rukia. My OCs start taking a more active role now. You'll see more of them later on. Review Please!**


	30. Chapter 29

**Here's the next chapter. It took a while because I had writers block. Anyway, enjoy, and Please, PLEASE review!**

Chapter Twenty-nine: Ghost of Horrors past

Rukia stood frozen as Kaien, or a man who looked like him in every way, stepped out of the shadows, a ruefully bitter smile on his face.

"What are you doing here? Don't you know how dangerous this place is?"

"K-Kaien f-fukutaicho-" Rukia stuttered.

Kaien, or his look-alike shook his head.

"No, I'm not Kaien-fukutaicho anymore. Now, I'm just a hollow, just part of the _thing_ that killed me."

"B-but how are you-"

Kaien grimaced. "You killed the hollow, but you didn't destroy my body. Captain Aizen fed my body to another hollow." He paused. "Rukia, I want you do to it again. I want you to kill me, and then destroy me for sure this time."

In that moment, Rukia shattered just as badly as any other time she had been heartbroken. Her idol was once again asking to die by her hand.

"What?! Kaien, I can't-I don't-"

"You must," he replied sadly. "As long as my body exists, I will never be free. I don't wish to spend the rest of my life like this. Death by oblivion is better than eternal confinement. Now please, do it, for me, Rukia."

If emotions could manifest as weather phenomenons, Rukia would have been surrounded in a tempest. Joy clashed with shock and horror along with grief as she tried to think about what was right, which was a hard thing to do when her heart wasn't shattered so much as demolecularized by the request. If she had stepped in to save him that one time, he wouldn't be like this, so it was her fault he was trapped. Now, he was asking her to kill him once more. Her mind said yes, but her body rebelled in place of her non-existent heart, refusing to move, refusing to draw blade. And while this was going on, Aaroniero Arrurueire smirked with both heads from behind his mask while watching her emotional turmoil.

_Oh this is highly entertaining, little shinigami,_ he thought from behind the illusory face of vice-captain Kaien Shiba.

***

Renji and Uryu ran into each other, literally, as they each rounded the same corner.

**KWATCH!**

"OW!" Renji rubbed his head. "What the-"

"Perhaps," Uryu commented dryly as he replaced his now cracked glasses. "it might be a good for you to watch where you run."

"The hell!" Renji bellowed. "You ran into me! Why don't you watch where you're going?!" he shot back as he got up, and was promptly bowled over by Dondochakka and Pesche.

"All right, I'll revise that," Uryu smirked as he watched the stricken pineapple extricate himself from the pile. "watch where you exist."

"When we get out of this, I'm gonna kill you…" Renji muttered and then turned toward the hallway. "…_if_ we get out of this fucking shithole. This damn place is a maze."

"An astute observation, Abarai."

"Shut the hell up!"

***

Aizen gave no indication that he knew anyone entered his private quarters except to say "So what's the first thing that comes to your mind, Kuromaru-taicho?"

**"That you're a fool not to have some protective measures against intruders like me in this room,"** he rumbled. **"The next thing that comes to mind is an apology on the account that I would probably never even notice your protective measures. The third thing that comes to mind, I have a very good idea where you plan to go, but I would like to hear it from you."**

Aizen raised an eyebrow as he turned around. "It was admittedly your banishment and the circumstances around it that gave me this idea."

**"Would it have to do with my being half-hollow along with my students?"**

"Admittedly."

**"Well,"** Kuromaru said dryly.** "do enlighten me on this."**

Then Aizen told him.

***

Rukia raised her zanpakuto, hand shaking violently, only to suddenly be struck from behind.

_"Ah ah ah, shinigami-san-"_ **"-your soul will not leave our domain that easily."**

Rukia whirled around. There stood a hollow with a very tall mask, thin spindly fingers and a long floor-length cloak.

_"After all the trouble we went to to consume you-"_ **"-do you really think you can get away?"**

Kaien's eyes brightened in fear. "Rukia, RUN!"

Aaroniero stuck one spindly hand through his chest and Kaien flashed into a bright light before being sucked into his hand.

"KAIEN!" Rukia howled.

_"Tsk, tsk, errant souls-"_ **"-give us no end of trouble."** _"But now, there is-"_ **"-fresh blood to be spilled."** _"Churn the waters of heaven-"_ **"-Nejibana."**

As the pillar-head arrancar pulled out his sword, it flashed and changed into a trident which swirled with water around it and the arrancar. Rukia sank even further into paralyzing terror as Aaroniero twirled the trident expertly, and his face changed into Kaien's.

"It is troublesome talking with two voices, so I think this form shall suffice. Now, we shall dance, Kuchiki?"

_T-that voice, Kaien-dono!_ Rukia shook out of it just in time to block a horizontal cutter before leaping backward out of range as Aaroniero attempted to follow up with a thrust.

_Calm down, this isn't Kaien-dono, this isn't Kaien-dono, this isn't-_

"Feh, You are weak, shinigami, or is this face familiar to you, hmm?"

The familiarity shocked the violet haired midget so much that her guard slipped for a critical second and Aaroniero drove home a thrust to her gut.

"Heh, I see. It's not that you are weak, but you can't attack effectively against a familiar person. That makes my job so much easier!"

Rukia looked up, and with a struggle, placed both hands in front of herself, ignoring her chest wound. "Hado 63, Shakkaho!"

Aaroniero's surprise lasted for half a second in which he flung her off and threw her aim. The kido blasted a hole in the wall and light streamed through, seemingly melting Kaiens face off him and revealing to Rukia once again his true face.

_"Gaaaaah!"_ **"Cursed light!"**

Oddly, Rukia took heart on seeing the awful transformation.

"So you need darkness. That explains the dark tower. As long as I know you aren't Kaien, I can fight you."

_"Damn shinigami!"_ **"You'll pay for that!"**

Aaroniero slammed the trident on her blade so hard that the white metal shattered, along with Rukia's concentration.

_What?!_

That pivotal moment allowed the furious arrancar to land a critical strike to her torso. The furious looks from the masks changed to triumph.

_"We skewered your heart-"_ **"-and you will die soon."** _"Your strength even with this knowledge-"_ **"-is not enough to overcome **_**ours**_**-"** _"-puny-"_ **"-shinigami!"**

Rukia could feel her strength draining away as red fluid provided a literal image for that metaphor. The dark room bacme even darker as her eyes closed. _Kaien-dono, I'm sorry..._

***

Kuromaru growled, really growled, at the bespectacled traitor and had to visibly restrain himself from lunging.

**"Are you that much of a fool? Do you even realize what forces you are playing with?!?!"**

Aizen chuckled bitterly. "And here I thought that you of all people would understand my logic-"

**"Logic is exactly what your reason lacks, along with its namesake! Humans cannot be trusted to wield that kind of power, even with the best of intentions!"**

"But trust must be given before it can be proven, no?"

**"There are matters of too great an import to place in the hands of mere mortals!"** Kuromaru raged. **"Do you not remember the history lessons of the ancient days?! Wars that ravaged the realms, ageless and horrifying creatures unseen to this day, forbidden arts that carried terrible prices in the lives of innocents?! Hell was the result when the Royal Family sealed those terrors away! Do you mean to bring that back?!"**

"No. I have no desire to reawaken the beasts that now slumber in that prison. This power is one that I would use to the betterment of the realms. The perfect beings would control it all, and reorganize the worlds to remove corruption and fear. And why not? Those are the reasons you four were banished."

**"Those 'perfect beings' you speak of would be subject to all the vagaries of any sentient creatures! And also, might I remind you that the beasts of old were the results of attempts to create the perfect being?!"**

"Ahh, but my ideal specimen hardly even resembles those ancient beasts."

Kuromaru grimaced behind his mask. **"So that's who it is now."**

"Yes."

**"He will hardly thank you for doing that to him."**

"With all respect, taicho, he will hardly thank you, either."

Kuromaru paused. **"My reasons are different."**

"And yet you use the same method."

**"Long will I rue this day, when I am outmanuvered by my junior."**

"Your reasons?"

Kuromaru turned to leave. **"Think about what I have lost which will never return, and ponder my alternatives. Perhaps then you'll see why.**"

***

_Flashback_

_"Why am I here in the Gotei squads?"_

_"Why are you thinking about something like that? It's obvious isn't it?! To 'fight' and to 'protect!'"_

_"To protect…protect what?"_

_"Whadyuh mean 'what?' Lots of things here and there!"_

_"That sounds like a pretty vague answer…isn't there an answer that's a little more straightforward?"_

_"…No, there isn't. Kuchiki, have you ever heard our captain's philosophy on this?"_

_"No…"_

_"There are two types of fights: fights to protect your life, and fights to protect your pride. That is Captain Ukitake's philosophy. But you know, Kuchiki, I think that when it comes down to it, both are telling you to protect the same thing."_

_"The same thing…what is it?"_

_"Your heart."_

_"…huuuuuuh, that sounds so corny…"_

_"HEY! I'm being serious here! Now then, I'll ask you…Kuchiki, where do you think that 'heart' is?"_

_"…W-well um, of course, it's right around here…isn't it?"_

_"Maybe, but I think that the heart is right here. When you and I interact with each other, a heart is born between us for the first time. IT's not in the body. When you think of something, when you think of someone, a heart is born there. *sigh* Suppose you were the only person in the world. There wouldn't be a heart anywhere, would there?"_

_"Uh…"_

_"You know, Kuchiki, from now on, when you fight, there is one thing you absolutely must not do, and that is die alone. Our bodies are themselves souls. If we die, our bodies sooner or later turn to dust and become the spirit particles that make up Soul Society. When that happens, where do our hearts go? They are left with our companions."_

_"Thank you, Kuchiki, thanks to you, I can leave my heart behind…"_

_Flashback end_

"…my heart…"

Aaroniero perked his head up. "What?"

"…I promised Kaien-dono that I wouldn't die alone. Third Dance-Shirafune."

The arrancar was caught completely off guard as Rukia raised her broken blade and pointed it at his head. Like a bolt of lightning, the blade reformed in an instant, but out of ice, and passed completely through his head.

"GYAAAAH!" _"The pain! Aizen-sama, you promised me you would end the pain! You primised meee…"_ **"…d-damn it…"**

Aaroniero collapsed and the trident pinning Rukia to the wall shattered. She slumped on the floor and made a pathetic attempt to get back on her feet before falling back down. "…hold on, Inoue. I'm coming…for …you…" and the world went black.

**Soul Society Archives**

**Identity: Mayuri Kurotsuchi**

**Password: ******************

**Identity confirmed. File Access?**

**-**

**File # 209845**

**Name: Enishi Takahashi**

**Rank: Captain**

**Status: Exile. S-class threat**

**Subject displays posession of forbidden powers. Temperament judged to be unreliable. Order for exile signed by Central 46 chairman Izumo Bikara(deceased).**

**Height: 5'4" Weight: 75 kilos. Eyes: White. No visible pupils. Hair: Onyx black. Age: 147**

**Shikai: Tsukiyomi. Affinity: Ice**

**Bankai: Classified/Unknown. Affinity: Presumably, Ice.**

**Abilities: Subject displays knowledge of Quincy techniques and vast skill in the art of kido. Subject is also a skilled melee combatant. Style: Getsuei no Kyuusuteppusu (Nine steps of the moon)**

**-**

**File # 209883**

**Name: Raiden Namikawa**

**Rank: Captain**

**Status: Exile. S-class threat**

**Subject displays posession of forbidden powers. Temperament judged to be unreliable. Order for exile signed by Central 46 chairman Izumo Bikara(deceased).**

**Height: 6'1" Weight: 84 kilos. Eyes: Gold. Hair: Flame red. Age: 147**

**Shikai: Amaterasu. Affinity: Fire/?**

**Bankai: Classified/Unknown. Affinity: Fire/?.**

**Abilities: Subject is a "master" melee combatant, very agile, prefers strength over finesse. Style: Kanadzuchi no Konpaku (Soul Hammer)**

**-**

**File # 209829**

**Name: Sayu Hanabusa**

**Rank: Captain**

**Status: Exile. S-class threat**

**Subject displays posession of forbidden powers. Temperament judged to be unreliable. Order for exile signed by Central 46 chairman Izumo Bikara(deceased).**

**Height: 6'9" Weight: 77 kilos. Eyes: Gray. Hair: Silver. Age: 147**

**Shikai: Susanoo. Affinity: Wind/Earth/Lightning**

**Bankai: Classified/Unknown. Affinity: Wind/?.**

**Abilities: Subject is a master of assassination, extremely fast, emotionless and hard to predict. Style: Arashi no Butokai (Dance of the Storms)**

**-**

**Logging out...**

**-**

**Next time, I'll show the files for the different sword styles. And again, PLEASE REVIEW! I'd still like to know what all of you think.**


	31. Chapter 30

**Well,I finally finished it, so enjoy the long overdue update!**

Chapter Thirty: Madness loves company

"Damn it! Where the hell does this thing go? We've been walking forever!"

"There's a door at the far end. Looks like we should head there."

Renji, Uryu, Pesche and Dondochakka burst through the door to see an arrancar with glasses and flaming pink hair.

"Ah, the imbeciles finally arrive."

"Who are you calling an imbecile?!" Renji snarled as he grasped his zanpaku-to.

"That would be you, Abarai-san, and I admittedly have to agree with his assessment." Uryu replied with a smirk.

"Ishida you backstabber!"

"Now, now. I believe you lower life forms have a bigger issue at hand to deal with: myself. I am the Octava Espada, and you would be fools to think that I will allow you to leave alive." Szayel sidestepped one of Uryu's larger arrows.

"You're the fool. We won't allow you to take us down."

"Such disrespect, boy. I'll have you learn some manners before you die."

Uryu notched another round. "That won't happen today."

"Hn. Denial is the reaction of lesser beings toward the inevitable."

"Enough bullshit!" Renji snarled. "Bankai! Hihio, Zabimaru!" Renji was engulfed in dust before it cleared to reveal the familiar white snake. "Now we'll see who-"

Renji was interrupted as his bankai suddenly shattered. "Wha-?!"

Szayel nodded his head in satisfaction. "I'm sorry to disappoint" he announced as he nudged his glasses back into place. "but your bankai will not work here. After witnessing your battle with my brother, I developed an installed a device specifically to block your abilities."

"My battle with your brother?"

"Oh, I suppose I forgot to mention. That idiot you fought, that bull-headed sonovabitch, was my older brother, Ilfort Granz. I am Szayel Apporo Granz. I admit, my useless brother unintentionally helped me. It looks like he was good for something."

"You bastard!"

"Language, boy. But let us not get too carried away. You'll be fighting these." Szayel snapped his fingers and a swarm of blank faceless forms emerged from the walls and columns.

"Oh fuck this to hell!" Renji groaned as he readied his shikai. Uryu kept silent, disapproving of the outburst, but he couldn't help but agree with the statement. _Well, no one said this would be easy..._

***

Barragan felt a sudden unfamiliar chill in his private quarters. He whirled around to see Enishi leaning against the door.

"Nice accomodations here, Segunda Espada."

Barragan didn't even bother reaching for his axe. "What do you want, boy?"

"Hmph, such disrespect. Only elders can say that to inferiors. How old are you?"

Now, Barragan _did_ reach for his axe. "I was created seventy-two years ago by Aizen-sama."

"Hmph, and _I_ have been around for more than twice your age, _boy._"

The floor suddenly began to crack. "I will not tolerate such insolence from a mortal-"

"Can the attitude. I can easily beat you into next week if I wanted, but that is not why I am here. I am here to make you an offer."

"Time allows no one to remain unscathed. I have no interest in what you say, shinigami." And a dark aura seeped from Barragan's shadow and lashed out at the ice master, who remained unaffected.

"Parlor tricks have no effect on me. I control ice, which does not age. I simply preserve my body through cryogenics, which allow nearly anything to survive the rigors of time. Now, if you are done making futile resistance, I have an offer to make you."

Barragan ground his teeth. How could anyone still stand against his _Respira?_ And this arrogant human had the guts to insinuate that he would bargain with mortals.

"I serve a man of greater promise than Aizen. All I ask of you is that you shift your allegiance to us."

"And why, pray tell, would I do that?"

"We have the same goals, but Aizen won't attack your age old enemies, the Shinigami, directly. We plan to do so, and send them to hell, literally."

Then again, perhaps there was some worth to be found. "And what would you ask of me?"

"Only that you ultimately listen to us. For right now, all you need do is follow Aizen's orders. I assure you that soon you shall be able to extract vengeance on the Shinigami."

"Hmm, I shall consider this,"

"You have a long time to consider it. Use it well." And then the diminuitive ice master flickered and vanished, replaced by an ice statue.

***

Renji snarled something obscure and obscene as he fought off another parodied copy of himself. Szayel had a limitless number of these…_things_ at his disposal, or so it seemed, and they just wouldn't die!

"Ishida, any ideas?!"

Uryu, who was somehow managing to stay completely clean, pushed up his glasses in annoyance. "I can only think of what, which is that we need to clear this area out. How to do that, I am drawing a blank at the moment."

"Isn't that easy? All we need is a huge attack!"

"It takes time to build up to that, smart one, time we don't have."

Renji growled. "And these stupid little shits will copy any move we…make…I got it! You better duck down!"

"What?! Hold on, what are you-"

"BANKAI!"

True to form, the copies imitated Renji and numerous shouts of "Bankai" were heard before the room veritably exploded. Uryu sat up half a minute later and clubbed Renji across the back.

"What was that for you moron?! You could have killed me!"

"I told you to get down!"

"You didn't give me any time!"

"We don't have time for this! There's the door! Let's go!"

Renji then grabbed a protesting Uryu and then dashed up the stairs, followed closely by Pesche and Dondochakka, who somehow managed to survive.

"Alright! We got out of that room and away from…him again?!"

It seemed impossible, but they were once again in the room they left.

"Hmph, you two certainly managed to make a mess of things. I really don't like my hair getting disturbed. Oh well. Since you cretins passed the first test, we'll go to the second. Now you'll face true perfection in battle!"

***

"Stark? Starrrrrrk…hey! STARK! WAKE UP YOU BASTARD!"

"Mmmmph! Gah! What was that for Lilinette?!"

"We got an intruder here. He wants to talk to you."

"Nnh, why don't you talk to him? Jeez…"

"GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS AND TALK TO HIM YOURSELF!"

"Okay okay, jeez…"

And so, Raiden found the Primera Espada getting pussy-whipped by his fraccion as he came up.

"Yeah, yeah, what do you want?"

"Interesting subordinate you have there."

"Whatever…hey I just remembered, Aizen told me to kill the intruders. Looks like I'll have to take you out."

"You sure don't look like you want to do that."

"It's too troublesome…is there anyway you'll just leave?"

"I have an offer to make you. Aizen is powerful, certainly, but I serve a man who I assure you has much more promise for you if you are willing to change allegiances."

"Hn…so what's the catch?"

"Why, nothing, at the moment. If you want to follow us, you still don't particularly have to do anything at the moment except wait until the time is right to strike with us."

"And how would we know that?"

"Only an idiot wouldn't recognize the signal. Trust me."

"Meh, whatever. Is that all?"

"Yep. You have plenty of time to consider it. And now, without further ado, I shall disappear."

And Raiden turned into a column of flames that billowed up with a roar before dissipating without a trace. Stark idly glanced at the spot. "What a troublesome showoff…"

***

Ichigo and Nel finally got out of the building and into the sunlight, which immediately drew a reaction.

"…"

Or not.

"What the hell? I thought it was nighttime. How is there sunlight?"

"Ah, Aizen-thama made it likth this."

Ichigo gazed in disbelief. _Man, I wonder how the fuck he did _that. And then he shook his head. _Inoue is somewhere over that way,_ he sensed, _near the center of this place. I just have to make it over there._

"Let's go!"

"W-wah! Itsygo!"

Forgetting that Nel was nowhere near as strong as he was, he paid no heed to her cries of protest as they both shot across the ground toward a tall multi-spired building, and then knocked in his own fashion.

"INOUE!"

There was no answer. The inside of the building certainly didn't look like anyone was there.

"INOUE! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"The woman is indisposed at the moment, Kurosaki." Ulquiorra called from the far end of the dark room. "That temporary status shall not extend to you."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed. "Ulquiorra."

"You have been interfering with Aizen-sama's plans. You are the trash that must be removed." Ulquiorra extended his index finger and fired a green cero. Despite ample warning, Ichigo could barely get his blade up in time to block and was blasted outside, through the wall he came from.

"Gah!"

Ulquiorra moved to attack again, but was stopped by a familiar teal-haired figure.

"Grimmjow…"

"Bug off, asshole!"

"What are you doing here, and" Ulquiorra glanced behind the humanoid feline espada. "why have you brought that woman here?"

"I owe here a favor, and I owe this bastard an ass-kicking! That's all!"

"You dare defy Aizen-sama? You'll pay-"

"Up yours, dipwad! Caja Negacion!"

Ulquiorra vanished into a white portal that burst into existence for one second before sealing. Grimmjow smiled widely and then turned to Ichigo. "Now…"

"What the hell was that?!"

"It's called a Caja Negacion. We espada use it to punish our subordinates. It traps them in an alternate dimension. The jerk is an espada too though, so he'll break out eventually. In the meantime, we got a score to settle, Strawberry!"

Ichigo struggled to his feet and readied his blade only to drop it and catch Orihime as Grimmjow flung her at him.

"Girl, heal him up. I wanna fight him at his full strength!"

"O-okay!"

"Heh, don't get me wrong. I'm not doing this for him. I owed you a favor for healing my arn. After this, I'm gonna beat the shit out of your precious Strawberry!"

"Stop calling me that!"

"Hah!"

Ichigo growled as Orihime quickly healed him, and then he grasped his cleaver and angled it at Grimmjow.

"Orihime, you better use your shield. This is going to get messy."

"H-hai! Santen Kisshun, I reject!"

Ichigo nodded as the shield formed, and then turned to Grimmjow. "Alright, you wanted an ass-kicking, you got it! BANKAI!" and Ichigo was surrounded by his aura and a billowing black cloak.

"Heh, bring it, Shinigami!" Grimmjow unsheathed his blade and took his stance. For a moment, they stood still, and then they sprang to meet…

**Okay, the next chapter, and maybe the one after that, will be about their fight. Because Ichigo is stronger than in the canon, think of Grimmjow as a LOT stronger than in the manga as well. This will be my own version of the fight. I swear, when I watched the anime and read the manga, I'm going "What the fuck? What rational person would fight like that?" Look forward to it. And PLEASE, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE (gets down on hands and knees and prays) PLEASE REVIEW! (*)_(*)**


	32. Chapter 31

**I finally recovered the damn files. Here's the next chapter for you. Enjoy the fight, and please review!**

Chapter Thirty-one: Let the bodies hit the floor

They met in a clash of sparks flying from their blades. There was maybe two or three seconds of struggle before Gimmjow overpowered Ichigo and gave him a faceful of cero blasting him into the distance. Ichigo stood up as the Sexta Espada came barreling at him, and lifted a palm.

"Bakudo 81, Danku."

For once, Ichigo actually performed it right. He summoned a pane of energy that Grimmjow smacked into like a fly on a windshield. Then he slashed with his blade. "Getsuga Tensho!" Grimmjow reeled from the blast as Ichigo literally flew at him. He steadied himself just in to shunt Ichigo's thrust away from himself and roll with the blow. He ended up kicking the substitute shimigami into the air before giving him some more air time with another cero skyward.

Ichigo flipped over and over until he could arrest his own momentum before he raised his blade and flew down, empowering it with his energy and hammering against the Espada's guard with such force that the backwash blew out several of the surrounding red columns. The dust cleared and the two were still locked in contest.

"Heh, come on! Is that all you have?!" Grimmjow yelled as he forced Ichigo away. "Show me the power you really have! Show me your damn mask, shinigami!" Grimmjow readied a bala volley and fired.

"Engh! Gah!" Ichigo shielded his face with his arm as he struggled to stay on his feet in the face of the barrage.

"If you're not gonna use it, then die!" Grimmjow added as he cut his thumb on a fang and smeared the blood on his lips. "Suck on this! Gran Rey Cero!"

And Ichigo was treated to the Grimmjow spitting an enormous bright blue energy blast right in his face.

***

From a great distance, Raiden whistled appreciatively at the mushrooming column of smoke rising from the battle.

"Whew! Strawberry ate that one! Wonder how it felt."

Enishi shook his head. "Leave it to you to be impressed by simple things such as concentrated firepower. This is why dictators are all show and no blow."

"Hey, I enjoy seeing this sort of thing!"

"Simple minds are generally occupied by simple things."

"Hey!" Raiden whipped around. "I resent that!"

"..."

"Che, whatever."

***

"Gran Rey Cero, the cero that only we of the espada are privileged to use," Grimmjow smirked at the dust cloud. "The only way you could have survived is if you pulled your real power out of your ass."

**"Alright, fine,"** a voice echoed back from the cloud. **"you wanted it, YOU GOT IT!"** An explosion of reiatsu cleared the dust away to reveal Ichigo with his hollow mask. He glared at Grimmjow through menacing yellow eyes.

Grimmjow's smirk widened enough to split his face in half. "Finally! Now I can really get started!" He held his zanpaku-to close and parallel to his waist before laying his right hand fingertips on the blade. "Kishire, Panthera!"

A second much more contained explosion of reiatsu erupted and Grimmjow revealed himself to have changed to a humanoid panther. He flexed experimentally while never taking his eyes off of Ichigo before letting out an inhuman roar that buffeted Ichigo and Orihime, despite the latter being _behind_ the arrancar.

_What the- Jeez, even his scream is freakishly powerful!_

"Get ready shinigami, cause here I come!"

Grimmjow hurled himself at Ichigo, who got his blade up just in time to block Grimmjow's hands from his chest. The Espada simply brought his feet up and then pushed away while firing the claws on his feet into Ichigo's chest at point-blank range, accompanied with several simultaneous balas.

**"GYAUGH!...FUCK!"**

"You like that? That was just a taster! The real fun begins now!"

Orihime stared in horror at the eight long spikes sticking out of Ichigo's chest. Even though he was in relatively superficial pain, she just concentrated on eight wounds that would have killed any human outright.

_No…no! I-I don't want this…why? Kurosaki-kun, please don't-you'll die…_

Completely oblivious to Orihime's conflict, Ichigo ripped out the spikes with his left hand and did the impossible: he applied a combat kido spell _around_ an object, namely, the spikes.

**"Hado 33, Soukatsui!"** He flung the spikes at Grimmjow before heaving a hard right swing. **"Getsuga Tensho!"**

No one could have predicted what happened next. There was much to be said for the speed of those projectiles, as kinetic force alone would have allowed them to puncture Grimmjow's hierro, but more to be said of the reaction between Ichigo's kido and the Getsuga, both of which collided with Grimmjow at exactly the same time and annihilated on contact.

***

Kuromaru stood much farther than Raiden and Enishi were from the battle, but he still managed to detect the blast.

_Hm, paternalistic talent perhaps? Or something more…applying and attaching a hado to a physical object is something even Hachigan and Tessai couldn't accomplish, not without the use of a Royal Artifact. And only one shinigami in the past 50 years had access to any of those…what a coincidence._

Kurosaki was shaping up to be all that he had hoped, and more.

***

The dark mass of smoke cleared to reveal Grimmjow sporting a massive burn on his chest, courtesy of the annihilation process. Incredibly however, he was laughing.

"Perfect! This is the best! It'd really suck if you were just all talk, shinigami!" He then sped at Ichigo and rammed into him and smashed him into another one of the idiotically huge columns. "Actually, I take that back," he continued as Ichigo struggled to fend off Grimmjow's left hand. "What would really suck is if your mask broke right now!" He made to lunge with his other hand, but Ichigo caught it with his left.

**"Nice words. Wonder if you'll still be able to say them when this is over!"** Ichigo then belted Grimmjow across the face with a vicious left hook before delivering a reiatsu-backed uppercut slash that carved a long bloody trench up his chest. Then, he leapt out of the crater after the Espada, instinctively forming a cero in his left hand and lunging with it. **"Have some of this!"**

Grimmjow dodged to the side, grabbed the arm with his left and Ichigo's shoulder with his right. Then, he proceeded to smash Ichigo's own cero into his face.

**"ARAUGH!"**

Next, the arrancar slashed him acoss the back, bala'ed him forward and then sonidoed so that he was above Ichigo, already rotating to slam a left foot down on the back of Ichigo's head. Ichigo smashed face-first into the sand.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha! Is that all you have, Kurosaki Ichigo?!"

Amidst the cloud, a bolt of black shot out at an upward diagonal, ricocheted off a pillar and collided with Grimmjow with such force that the arrancar shot backward a few miles. By the time he regained his balance, Ichigo had already sent a huge black crescent at him that gave him another scar to add to the list.

**"If you really want more, I'll be happy to oblige, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques!"** Ichigo declared as he charged yet again.

***

Halibel ignored the usual bickering of her fraccion, preferring instead to concentrate on the battle in the distance.

_Grimmjow Jeagerjaques is fighting over there. Pft. That idiot is having a grand old time, I suppose. But who on earth is he fighting? I know he's not stupid enough to release against another arrancar, but no human could possibly have this much power, especially with this evil taint. It feels like two Espada are fighting…_

"Enjoying the sights I see…"

Halibel's eyes widened almost comically as she whirled around. Sayu stood between Mila and Sun-Sun, both of whom were ghostly-pale in fright, and on top of Apache. Her right hand contained her zanpaku-to which was poised to decapitate Mila while her left hand was surrounded by a highly contained gust that was currently drawing the tiniest amout of blood from Sun-Sun's throat. Her left foot was firmly planted on Apache's back while her right foot was held up with another wind blade around her foot that had sliced a small bit into her right cheek. Apache was trying not to flinch as one wrong move would scalp her.

"How did you-"

"Stealth is my specialty," Sayu replied icily, not at all like her usual self. "along with assassination."

Halibel's eyes narrowed in contemplation. _That would explain why I didn't hear her._ "I would appreciate it if you released my fraccion."

Sayu shrugged and removed her blades. "I was just making a point."

"The point is already well made."

"Heh, get it? Making a _point?_ I made a funny!"

Halibel sweatdropped. _And _she_ was Aizen's former captain?_ What was with her? One moment, she was all business and threatening and now she was acting like a pre-adolescent.

"Oh well, the captain wanted to let you know he's making you guys an offer. He's offering you a better chance of destroying the shinigami."

_What?!_ "Why are you telling me this? Aren't you a shinigami as well?"

Sayu's attitude abruptly changed again with a snap of her head. "As far as _they_ were concerned," she spat. "we never were. They considered us monsters just like you."

_There's that strange behavior again…_ "What would you have me do?"

Sing-song voice: "Only that you have to join us when we give the signal. Until then, just follow Aizie-kun's orders."

"hmm…you've given me something to think about. I will consider this."

Cold-sadist voice: "Then I suggest you consider it well before you make your choice."

Sing-song voice: "See ya!"

Halibel's eyes locked on the place where she vanished. _Seriously, what is up with her?_

***

Ichigo smashed into the sand yet again, leapt up again to slam against Grimmjow's claws and both sprang away. Orihime watched silently, torn between hope and fear as Ichigo was pummeled again and again.

_I came here because I didn't want anyone to die, but now that you're here-_ "Kurosaki-kun, please don't die! Please…"

Ichigo stood on the sand and looked toward Orihime. _Don't worry, Inoue, I won't die here. I'm going to save you._

"Where the hell do you think you're looking, shinigami?!" Grimmjow snarled as he moved to slash at Ichigo's head. To his astonishment, without even looking, Ichigo caught his hand. Then he turned his head slightly.

**"Sorry Grimmjow, but I can't waste any more time here with you."** Then Ichigo stabbed his blade into Grimmjow's chest. **"Getsuga Tensho."** Grimmjow was engulfed in black energy. Then it exploded.

***

Raiden snorted. "Che, typical Kurosaki, always the drama queen."

Enishi looked on dispassionately. "Perhaps it runs in the family."

***

Isshin sneezed. "Huh? What was that?"

Ryuken smirked. "Someone doesn't like you apparently."

"What?! That's impossible! Everyone likes me!"

"Now why would that be I wonder," Ryuken continued, tapping his chin and ignoring Isshin. "could it be that disgusting habit you pass off as your flair for the dramatic?"

"I'll have you know that is an art!"

Ryuken sweatdropped. _I do not want to know._

**By the way, I'm just wondering why no one seems to be reading my other story. I decided to write it because I figured all of you would want to know their history. If no one reads it, then should I just put short files at the end of each update about them? Seriously, tell me. I'd like to know.**


	33. Chapter 32

**Here's the next chapter. Please Review!**

Chapter Thirty-two: Finish the fight

Grimmjow reeled from the blast, and for once, his expression was not the omnipresent bloodthirsty grin. It was indignation. "The fuck are you talking about, shinigami?! 'Wasting your time?!' What the hell makes you think you're gonna beat me you arrogant prick?"

Ichigo didn't answer.

"That's it! I'm so sick of you looking down on me! I'll show you!" Grimmjow launched himself up into the air, turned so that he faced down and placed his hands together, wrists parallel and next to each other, clawed fingers spread. "This is my ultimate attack! Let's see how you like this!" Idiotically huge claws of blue energy formed, coalescing to single points in conjunction with his claws.

Ichigo leapt off the ground and rose to face him. **"What the hell is that?!"**

"These are my most powerful attack, shinigami! Behold, Desgarron!"

Grimmjow released the set on his right, and Ichigo found himself to be physically overwhelmed as the attack bore him rapidly towards one of the few remaining red pillars and smashed him into it. When the dust cleared, he was somehow still resisting.

"Admit it, shinigami. You came here to fight, and now you'll die! I hate it when people look down on me and I always killed them for it! What makes you think you'll be any different?!"

Ichigo answered with a roar and a surge of energy that he used to shatter the claws. **"What makes me think I'm any different?"** he repeated. **"I'm stronger than you!"** With that, he threw himself at Grimmjow, who answered by way of throwing the other set of claws at him. This time, the clash was far different as Ichigo not only held his ground, but cut through the attack. **"You're right! I came here to fight, and I came here to win! I'm gonna beat the shit out of anyone who gets in my way and bring Inoue back home, and I'm not going to be stopped by you!"** With that, Ichigo finished cutting through the Desgarron and summoned his own energy for one final attack. **"Getsuga-"** he raised his blade. **"TENSHO!"**

The only resemblance to the standard attack was that the blast was reddish-black. It seemed an angry mockery of a black hole as the globe of dark energy expanded from where Ichigo's blade carved into Grimmjow's shoulder. The globe grew until it was 80 feet in diameter, and then it imploded upon itself. The result was devastaing. The shockwave could be felt from Szayel's lab and the pressure wave flattened the last remaining structures that were standing nearby.

* * *

"How unoriginal," Raiden commented. "A ball of exploding energy? Come on!"

"It would appear that the knack for corny lines isn't the only thing Kurosaki inherited from his father."

"We knew that already, dumbass."

_Still,_ Enishi thought to himself, _to be capable of such an attack even when he is exhausted and worn out is not humanly possible. Granted, he is a hybrid, but none of us can summon that percentage of pure energy without a severe physical cost. He is using his life energy to attack, and yet he's still unaffected. How is that possible?_

If Enishi hadn't been so engrossed in logical musings, he might have noticed one of two things: the ambient level of reiatsu had suddenly drained significantly, and Ichigo was no worse for the wear than before he had attacked despite the immense cost in energy.

* * *

Grimmjow fell to the sands and Ichigo touched down just opposite of him. Slowly and painfully, Grimmjow attempted to rise.

"Damn...you...shinigami. This...isn't...over yet!"

"Give it a rest, seriously. Stay down and shut up. There's no point in fighting any more."

"I don't need your fucking pity!" Grimmjow snarled.

"You're asking to die, you know that?"

"Shut the fuck-"

"Well looky here, Pussycat got whipped. Actually no, just pussy."

Grimmjow looked up and stared. "Nnoitra!"

"Wimpy-ass pussy, you got served. Get the fuck outta the way."

With that, Nnoitra proceeded to use his massive blade as a golf club, sending Grimmjow flying far out of sight. Where the humanoid feline landed, no one could determine.

"Now that the prick is out of the way," Nnoitra turned his one-eyed gaze on Ichigo. "I'll do what that wimpy-ass pussy couldn't do. And after that, I'm going to murder that crazy-ass bitch."

Ichigo groaned. _Why me? Why always me? Could this day possibly get _any_ worse?_

"Oh, by the way, I'm the Quinta Espada. Been nice knowing you!" And then Nnoitra stuck out his tongue to reveal the number 5 emblazoned on it.

Vaguely, Ichigo could hear his hollow yelling at him. _**You fucking moron! You just made it worse!**_

* * *

Ulquiorra gathered his energy yet again and proceeded to blast against the dimensional barrier that contained him within this void. He was greatly surprised to see Enishi emerge from out of nowhere.

"Nice lodgings you have here, even if it's only temporary."

Ulquiorra frowned. "Who are you?"

"Enishi Takahashi. I'm sure that Aizen may have already told you about us."

The Cuarta Espada frowned. "He has."

"Good. That saves me the trouble of explaining who I am."

Ulquiorra began to gather energy at his fingertips. "You are an intruder, a piece of trash that stands in Aizen-sama's path. You will be removed."

Enishi didn't look perturbed in the least. "Aren't you at least going to listen to what I have to say?"

"There is no reason for me to listen to trash." Ulquiorra raised his arm and fired a cero. Enishi disappeared in a cloud of dust only to reappear clutching the cero with his right hand.

"Well, since you explained your definition of 'trash,' the laws of etiquette dictate that I reciprocate the gesture," As he spoke, the cero shrank into his index finger. "To me, 'trash' are those too weak-willed to live by their own decisions, those who allow others to decide their lives for them. Those people are trash."

Enishi then extended his finger and fired the cero back at exactly the same strength as Ulquiorra had. The explosion didn't faze him in the least.

"I see, then each of us falls under the other's definition. Very well."

"I was going to ask you if you would join us instead of Aizen, but I'm beginning to sense that this is a fool's errand," Enishi continued sarcastically.

"An astute observation, but it will not save you," Ulquiorra replied as he gathered his energy.

"Save your power for someone you have a genuine chance of beating, like Kurosaki. Only an idiot allows his reach to surpass his abilities." And with that, Enishi turned and somehow walked through the dimensional walls leaving Ulquiorra without an exit.

* * *

Aizen sat upon his throne as he awaited the most important news of all. Finally, the messenger arrancar appeared.

"Aizen-sama, Ichimaru-sama and Kaname-sama have finished their preparations. They have requested that I inform you that the countermeasures are ready."

Aizen allowed a true smile to grace his lips. "Excellent news. You may leave."

"Hai."

_I will do my best to prevail in spite of your attempts to thwart my efforts, Kuromaru-san. It will at the very least be an interesting conflict. Let us see who wins the confrontation between man and monster…_

* * *

Kuromaru stood now in the shadows of the eaves in the Great Hall overlooking the throne. _Monster? Hmm, you wound me by thinking so little of me…_

* * *

Ichigo was starting to seriously regret charging off on his own. Sure, he was used to fighting those way the hell beyond him, but he was fucking exhausted and the skinny freak wasn't giving him the least chance to recover.

"Why do you even try, wimpy-ass shinigami?" Nnoitra commented as Zangetsu merely glanced off his arm. "You ain't gonna get through my hierro, and I got the toughest there is."

"S-shut up! I didn't come here to have you kill me!"

"You think I care, you little shit?"

Nel watched this and whimpered. "I-Itsygo's gonna die! WAH!"

Tesla, who was ensuring that Orihime didn't try to interfere, looked over and stared. "What the…Nel? Hmph. Nnoitra-sama would be amused to see your situation. You certainly don't look like a former espada, let alone the Tercera."

"Th-thsera esfada?" Nel uttered, and then froze. Without warning, she was engulfed in a pure white light and a surge of reiatsu swirled before dispersing to reveal a fully-grown and well-endowed Nel. Tesla's eyes widened. _I didn't do that, did I?_

* * *

Zommari Leroux walked into the remains of Aaroniero's tower to stand over the prone and unmoving form of Rukia. "Hmm, I don't know how a runt like you ever managed to beat Aaroniero, even if he was still a Gillian. Still, mine is not to wonder why. It a pity I'll never know your name-"

"The midget's name is Rukia, Kuchiki Rukia," Raiden answered as he materialized behind Zommari, who whirled around, astonished at being caught off guard.

"How did you-"

"Methinks your attentiveness is lacking. Moving on, how would you like to join forces with our side?"

Zommari snorted. "Join with the shinigami? Never."

"You misunderstand me. I'm not a shinigami, and they regard me as much of an enemy as they do you. They did something to us, and I'd see them pay."

"I clearly remember you from my time as a Gillian when you adventured into this place and slaughtered my kind for fun. I will never join with you, shinigami," Zommari replied as he quickly fired a cero. Raiden neutralized it with his spiritual pressure alone.

"Fine then, I'll simply allow you to be slaughtered by _her_ brother. They say that family members are quite sadistic when responding to assaults. You'll be finding out about that real soon." Raiden disappeared in his signature column of flame.

Zommari snorted. "Me get slaughtered by a shinigami? Not likely to happen ."

"Shall we test that theory, arrancar?" Byakuya Kuchiki replied from behind him.

* * *

Nnoitra crowed in victory. "I gotta admit Nel, you gave me a hard time, but it looks like you can't keep that power up when you turn back into a snot-nosed brat! Hey Tesla, I'll let you have some fun with her."

"Thank you Nnoitra-sama." Tesla raised his zanpaku-to. "Sayonara, Nel-san."

Suddenly, a line appeared on his body that bisected him perfectly. That was the last glimpse of him before the following shockwave blasted him to pieces. When the smoke cleared, an insanely-grinning Kenpachi Zaraki stood there with his zanpaku-to draped over his shoulder.

"Sayonara punk. That's what you get for beating on a kid."

Nnoitra gritted his teeth and hefted his blade. "You'll pay for that, shinigami!"

Kenpachi shrugged. "He had it coming. What can I say? Anyway, enough talk. Let's get down to business, shall we?"

**Soul Society Archives**

**Identity: Mayuri Kurotsuchi**

**Password: ******************

**Identity confirmed. File Access?**

**File # 163994  
**

**-Hell-**

**This dimension was not actually created by the Royal Family. It was discovered as a nexus hub that connects innumerable dimensions. Under Directive #4A296, these dimensions have never been explored.**

**Characteristic of it is the aura permeating the entire dimension (Theorized) known as the "Miasma." Studies have shown that it serves as a regressive agent. Souls exposed to this regress in mental, physical and spiritual abilities. This is possibly a containment measure to prevent the escape of errant souls.**

**Inside exists a large incorporeal spirit that serves as the guardian. Not much is known about it except that when souls that are judged to be evil undergo konso or are cleaved by zanpauk-to, this guardian reveals only its eyes and a large blade. The first explorers have claimed that the spirit has a demonic visage, white hair, one blade in the right hand, a prayer bead necklace in the left, and a blade clenched in the mouth. It is cloaked in white, and appears to draw power from the Hell realm itself.**

**The Royal Family has used Hell as a prison and containment dimension for many large and terrible creatures that terrorized the Real World in ancient times and gave rise to many legends and disasters.**

**[Further information requires clearance from the Royal Family]**

-

**File # 083259**

**Hell Creatures**

**[Access restricted to Soutaicho Genryuusai Shigekuni Yamamoto]**

**Input Access code: ******  
**

**{Access Denied}**

**Input Access code: **********  
**

**{Access Denied}**

**Input Access code: ************  
**

**{File Access Violation detected. Archive Lockdown commencing}**

**Heh, looks like Kurotsuchi was too curious for his own good. He got caught hacking the system. Too bad. So what do you think? Please Review!  
**


	34. Chapter 33

**I apologize for my unannounced hiatus, but I got sandbagged by a required 75-page Senior Inquiry Project for my Senior Year at high school.**

**Anyway, I promise that what's at the end will make up for it. Please, read and review.  
**

Chapter Thirty-three: Preparing

Urahara absently fingered the charm bracelet in his hands as he considered the answer Shinji just gave him. "And how do you intend to do that, Hirako-san?"

Shinji snorted. "I have no freakin' idea. I was hoping you would know, genius."

Urahara looked up in thought. "Then this is quite the balancing act you're attempting here. On one hand, Aizen threatens the security of the dimensions with his plans to overtake Soul Society. We know of it just as well as they, and they are not going to allow him to do that. On the other hand, they aren't happy at all with the banishment forced on them; at least, those three aren't. We have no idea what their plans are. Perhaps the reason they are also going to try and stop Aizen is because they wish to destroy Soul Society rather than reshape it in their image.

"And to top it all off, there is no one except maybe Yamamoto-sempai who is able to stand against them for Soul Society. I have not seen any hint that Kurosaki-san will take up arms to defend against them."

Shinji snorted again. "Who're you talking about? Ichigo, or his old man?"

Urahara smiled, but did not answer.

"On the plus side, me, Love, Rose and Kensei have seen what our old captains can really do. We're probably the best hope for Soul Society against them, but I don't have a clue how the hell we're supposed to fight mister armored juggernaut over there. Seriously, I thought the old man had a shitload of power, but nothing like him."

"Hirako-san, remember that in all the time you or I were captains, Yamamoto-sempai never used his bankai. Don't forget that he taught Jushiro and Shunsui. Even if Kuromaru-san managed to defeat both of them in a sword duel simultaneously, he still was defeated by Yamamoto-sempai despite using his bankai."

"Kisuke, I hope you're not that big of an idiot. That was thirteen years before you became a captain! Things change! Central 46 had them tossed into Hell! Enishi used to be in competition with Shunsui for 'laziest bastard of all time.' Now, he would use thumbscrews, the stretch rack, or salt and acid on someone and laugh while he does it. Hanabusa-taicho went from workaholic to ditzy airhead, and I swear that she really is crazy now. People change!"

Urahara took a sip of tea before he replied. "I understand, but it is not entirely helpful to be negative all the time. We must look at what we can do, or think we can do."

"Well then," Shinji replied sarcastically. "we _can_ get slaughtered when we go up against Aizen, or we _can_ let them do it and get a head start on biting us all in the ass. We _can_ try to fight them, or we _can_ run away screaming to save our lives. Yeah, that really helps a lot."

Before Urahara could answer, Tessai appeared in the doorway of the shop's back room. "The Soutaicho wants to speak with you, sir."

Urahara nodded and got up to leave the room. "I think you should make yourselves scarce. If this is about what I think it is, you need to be away from Karakura before they even begin their work."

Shinji sighed. "Figures."

Kuromaru's knowledge of kido was level with Yamamoto and Aizen, and second only to Kurosaki Isshin and Tessai Tsukabishi, former captains of the Kido Corps. His abilities with spells was not so great because of his primary focus on armed combat, but by no means was he unskilled. He was currently laying a summoning matrix beneath Aizen's throne room, but with a rather unorthodox method. Rather than using his energy, which would have been a massive signal flare, he scrawled with a pen nine different ways from the center. Then he placed his hand on the central seal and channeled the smallest amount of energy. The characters on the ground spooled back toward the center and vanished leaving a single pulsing symbol on the ground. Eventually, even that glow faded. Finished, he used hirenyaku to rise to the ceiling and began the workings of a temporal distortion seal. Time is, after all, a valuable commodity. The events planned for this area would require a great deal of it. On second thought, better add a barrier seal too…

Kenpachi brought down his blade on the beserker Nnoitra, finally dropping the arrogant arrancar.

"Jeez, you could have stayed down. You would've lived and we could've come back to do this again. Che, alright woman, patch me up!"

Orihime hurriedly complied and began reversing his wounds. Just as she finished, Stark appeared behind her.

"I hate using force, but I have to do this."

Ichigo yelled in frustration as once again, Orihime was snatched away.

Gin and Tosen arrived at the foot of Aizen's throne and bowed deeply. Aizen acknowledged with a nod and gestured at Tosen, who promptly opened up a Garganta and initiated Tentei Kura.

_"To all shinigami in Hueco Mundo, my congratulations for making it this far and for your continued success against my arrancar. To the Ryoka, you have my thanks for withdrawing vital assets to Soul Society's defense into this realm, away from Karakura."_

Isane, Hanatarou and Renji's eyes widened as they suddenly realized what was about to happen. The gargantas they had used to enter, heretofore open, slammed shut with a resonant boom that was heard throughout the palace.

_"When I first witnessed Inoue Orihime's astounding abilities, I decided she would be useful, but not for completing the Hogyouku. Such a task is beyond the power of any single mortal. No. Her usefulness is in depriving Soul Society of its newfound allies by luring them here as well."_

Ichigo and Uryu stared at the sky in comprehension.

"No way…that's-"

_"To all intruders of this realm, I am leaving Inoue Orihime in the Five Towers. You may attempt her retrieval at your leisure. I have no more use for her. We will now leave to begin the sacrifice of Karakura town. I am leaving you in charge here, Ulquiorra."_

As the three rogue captains vanished into the swirling portal, Ulquiorra emerged from the Caja Negacion.

"Hai, Aizen-sama."

Renji smashed his zanpakuto into the rubble nearby. "Damn it! We have to go back and stop them-"

"Impossible," Kurotsuchi cut him off. None of us, least of all that brute Zaraki, can create a way back to Karakura. We cannot contact Urahara and it would be useless to do so anyway. Besides, even if you returned, what could you possibly contribute?"

"But I can't just sit here!" Ichigo howled in frustration.

"Cool it, kid," Kenpachi retorted. "Yama-ji already planned ahead. The rest of our group is preparing to fight in your hometown. We got it covered. You just focus on getting that girl. Let the rest of us have some fun too, ya little prick…"

"But captain, if six captains and eleven seated officers fight in the human world, Karakura will-"

"Kurotsuchi-taicho has exchanged the genuine Karakura with a detailed fake. Karakura will not be harmed."

Aizen, Gin, Tosen and the top three espada emerged in the sky to be greeted by the assembled cadre of shinigami officers. And then some.

"Hmph, this is a welcome surprise, Hanabusa-taicho," Aizen commented with a smirk.

"Little Aizen, you really made a mess of things. Time to clean up!"

Raiden licked the edge of his axe while Enishi concentrated power into his spear and readied a thrust.

"Our captain cannot allow your plan to succeed-"

"-and I cannot allow you to interfere," Aizen cut him off. He snapped his fingers and nine runic circles appeared, three revolving around each one.

"You of all people, Namikawa-taicho, should know what spell this is. It is of the same type used by the Royal Family. While this brief reunion is enjoyable, we must part ways."

Raiden let out a howl of rage as his aura erupted into flame, struggling against the binding spell to no avail. Sayu glared through her helmet and pointed her blade as if in malediction. "You won't escape your fate, Aizen."

"Time will tell," was the casual reply before all three were sucked into another dimension. "Now with that unpleasantness out of the way, we shall proceed with the elimination of our enemies."

Yamamoto grasped the hilt of his blade. "I might have something to say about that…"

Ichigo flew toward the Five Towers, only slightly slowed by the Exequias when Rukia took over for defeating them. He blasted through the wall for the second time and stopped as he saw Ulquiorra and Orihime standing yards apart from each other.

"You should really learn to knock, boy," Ulquiorra told him deadpan.

"And you should learn that I don't give up on my friends!"

"That aspect of your behavior was already factored into this. You should have known better, boy." Ulquiorra raised his finger and fired a cero down the hall at Ichigo, who flash-stepped out of the way.

"Come on you bastard!" he yelled as he closed in on Ulquiorra's right side before he was smashed away by Yammy.

"Don't think so, shinigami! Now I can pay you back for my arm!"

"Don't think so, arrancar…" Uryu flew up through a hole in the floor and fired his strongest arrow at Yammy. "Hmm, your skin is stronger than I thought."

Yammy turned to deliver a swing. "Damn right, boy!"

"Still, you might want to watch your step."

"Huh?"

The landmine Uryu stuck to the ceiling beneath exploded, dropping Yammy several hundred feet down.

"Now, it's up to you, Kurosaki."

Ichigo had been vaguely observing out of the corner of his eye, and nodded to himself. "Alright Ulquiorra, watch closely."

"Hmm?"

Ichigo yanked his mask on and with a burst of power suddenly overwhelmed Ulquiorra with speed and a powerful thrust that blasted both of them through the wall and into the air behind it, and up toward the sky. Ulquiorra caught himself and pushed off the blade, even higher until he broke through the dome of Las Noches.

"Wait, Kurosaki. We must take it up here."

"What?"

Ulquiorra unsheathed his zanpakuto. "By Aizen-sama's command, there are two things forbidden beneath Las Noches. One of these is the Gran Rey Cero. The other is for Espadas One through Four to release their forms. This is because such power would destroy Las Noches."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he to rose above the dome.

"Despair, Murcielago."

And Ulquiorra was engulfed in purplish-black reiatsu.

Kuromaru angled his mask upward, sensing perfectly what was going on. So Kurosaki was now facing Aizen's most loyal lackey eh? Well what doesn't kill him will make him stronger. He laughed. **And the numbskull doesn't understand how extraordinary his growth rate is.** Well, he admitted, the reason was quite difficult to believe. Still, that would be rectified before his plans were complete…

**And now for my peace offering, a spoiler for what I have planned later in the story. Enjoy!  
**

Kuromaru turned to face the remaining captains and vice-captains from his perch on the roof of the Senzaikyu. Yamamoto and company alighted on a lower section.

**"It would appear that you survived Aizen-"**

"Don't give us that!" Soifon snapped. "You were behind all of that! What are you trying to pull?"

Kuromaru chuckled darkly, sending chills up the spines of everyone except Yamamoto. **"Such suspicion is wounding, Shaolin Fon. Your father was far less myopic, but I digress. What am I trying to pull? I wonder..."**

"Kuromaru-san," Ukitake cut in. "what happened was never our intention!"

**"Oh? I do not recall any of you protesting the 'solution' concocted by the Spirit King, who was so incompetent that he passed the duty of using the King's Seal down to a captain of the Kido Corps-"**

"Kuromaru, that is enough." Yamamoto growled. "While I believe we are all grateful for your aid, I wish to know what your intentions are, in **full.**"

**"Very well. Does anyone remember my lecture on the equation of four D's? Disruption plus Demoralization plus Distraction equals Devastation. First,"** he raised one armored finger. **"the distraction caused by Aizen's defection. Instead of performing your normal duties, you were sidetracked by his little war. Second,"** he raised a second finger. **"Demoralization, caused by the loss of three of not only the most powerful officers in Soul Society, but three very upstanding ones in public eyes. If you cannot trust the captains, who _can_ you trust? Third,"** another finger up. **"your single-minded focus on Aizen's activities left my students and I free to move and recruit new allies to our cause. All of this, Disruption, Demoralization and Distraction. All of it leads to this:"** he snapped his fingers, and three massive gargantas opened in the sky to reveal Stark, Barragan and Halibel, fresh from their earlier battles and their remaining fraccion. **"Devastation."** Six numeros and three Espada unleashed their fury as a rain of ceros and balas pummeled Seireitei into dust, as the assembled officers, with three exceptions, looked on in horror.

Soifon turned, her face ablaze with fury, as Kuromaru continued, heedless. **"While I regret the necessity of this, somethings require rather, _extreme _remedies."**

"You low-life scum! DIE TRAITOR!"

Instantly drawing her zanpaku-to, she charged in blind fury. Kuromaru countered with a wordless Hado Thrust, but all that was pushed back was Soifon's robe. The captain herself stood behind Kuromaru as two small holes opened on his armor, one on his chest and one on his back. She turned slightly, waiting for him to disintegrate. He didn't.

_What? I struck him twice! Why isn't-_

Kuromaru raised his right gauntlet over his shoulder, so everyone could see. **"Curious isn't it? There are some things we just don't notice, until it is far too late."**

Everyone's eyes locked on the red smear coating the gauntlet and dripping. A slight breeze blew a droplet towards Soifon, who stared blankly. _That smell, it's blood...my blood-_

A massive gash ripped open across her chest, showering the dark tiled roof with blood while the vengeful captain collapsed. This left all staring at the renegade, who shook the blood off his gauntlet, and faced the rest.

**"And now, this next act begins..."**

**I hope that this makes up for my hiatus. Please review!****  
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	35. Chapter 34

**Sorry for the long break. I was busy trying to write a story that I hope to publish sometime. For the first five people who review, I may send you that other story and ask your opinion about it. Anyway, here's the next chapter.**

Chapter Thirty-four: Depths of Despair

The sudden explosion of power caught Ichigo completely off guard. He felt like he was being smothered by a veritable ocean of power. As the dust settled, it revealed Ulquiorra, standing there with large black bat wings and a glowing reishi lance. The espada sighed deeply.

"I had hoped to avoid this, but you leave me little in the way of options, boy."

"You're one to talk!" Ichigo growled as he lunged. "All I came here to do was rescue Inoue!"

"But alas," Ulquiorra countered as he effortlessly guarded against Ichigo's cross slash, "your subsequent departure from Las Noches is against the wishes of Aizen-sama."

After the shove backward, Ichigo reoriented himself and placed a hand over his chest. _Ready for this?_

_**It fucking took ya long enough, partner!**_

"Heh, ask me-" White gunk erupted from every orifice on his body, solidifying into smooth unmarred skin. "-**IF I CARE, ULQUIORRA SCHIFER!**" Having fully hollowfied, Ichigo dashed forward at a speed far in excess of his previous record and delivered a roundhouse backslash that sawed its way through Ulquiorra's lance, much to his surprise. Not content with a guard breaker, he whipped the espada in the face with his noticeably longer tail while readying a thrust with the nodachi still clenched in his right hand. "**Getsuga, TENSHO!**"

It was a creative attempt to mimic Ichimaru's zanpaku-to abilities, but at close range. As the sword stabbed deep into the winged espada's ribs, he fired the energy down the length, turning his blade into a quintessential railgun for his reiatsu, extending a bolt of energy from the tip for a good 40 feet before it destabilized and blasted a two foot hole in Ulquiorra's chest. Ulquiorra flew backward from the force, a stunned look momentarily plastered on his face.

"…I see, so you've sacrificed yourself and embraced a guardianship role, a rather, _hollow_, existence."

"**Shut up! This is over.**"

Ulquiorra closed his eyes. "No, boy." The wound in his chest flash-healed in an instant. "This is _far_ from over. What new power you have gained is merely a new obstacle to overcome. I will show you the unbridgeable gap between us, the distance that even your newfound power will fail to cross. I will show you a power that even Aizen-sama does not know about! Behold," He spread his arms and wings overhead, and a fresh wave of purple reiatsu rolled away from him. "_**Segunda Etapa!**_" And Las Noches was plunged into darkness.

"Whoo! It sure is hot in here!" Gin commented.

"Indeed. Yamamoto's rage burns as fiercely as ever," Aizen added.

"And it is now all up to the others to accomplish the mission," Tosen mused.

"For now, perhaps," Aizen conceded."

"This is so troublesome," Stark commented as he watched Lilinette tentatively fighting with Ukitake. "Aizen gave no orders, and that idiot decides to start things up."

"You certainly don't sound like you approve of your comrade," Shunsui commented, angling a thumb at Barragan and his throne of skulls.

Stark turned back to face the captain. "For a creature of time, he is insufferably impatient. We should just take things easy. "

"Well," Shunsui chuckled. "on that we both see eye to eye."

"Possibly."

"YO STARK! CAN YA GIVE ME SOME HELP HERE, IDIOT?"

Stark rolled his eyes. "He's not even taking you seriously. If he was, then I'd help."

"YOU LAZY BASTARD!"

The long suffering espada just rubbed his face. "Why me? Why is it always me?"

Uryu's platform of reishi froze in the air, along with Orihime and himself, as he stared at the hole in the dome in shock. "W-what the-?"

The immensity of Ulquiorra's reiatsu hit him like a train. It was thicker than the previous ocean of power, but by no means diminished. _Kurosaki, what the hell kind of monster are you fightning?_

The difference from before was that Ulquiorra had lost his espada clothing. The hole moved to his chest and seemed to bleed black, while his wings had grown larger and were now accompanied by a thin tail. Once the energy had fully dissipated, he vanished from sight. Ichigo whirled around and barely warded off the espada's monstrous blow. The backblast still sent him reeling.

"**GRAUGH!**" the hybrid shinigami slammed his nodachi into the dome to arrest his momentum. He leapt into the air and began flipping rapidly over and over. He gathered energy into his blade while his hollow focused it near his tail. "**Getsuga CERO!**" The paths traced by the blade and tail lined up for a single full rotation as both minds fired their attacks in perfect unison, creating an instantaneous energy attack targeted at Ulquiorra. Unfortunately, he was nowhere near the blast.

"It is futile, boy," he baldly stated from behind Ichigo before smashing him across the back, forcing a skidding impact with the dome. "Your pale imitation of my kind cannot hope to match this power. I will show you immutable proof of superiority." Ulquiorra raised a finger and pointed directly at Ichigo's chest while forming a ball of pure black reiatsu. "Cero Oscuras."

Inoue and Uryu reached the surface of the dome just in time to witness a sizeable portion of a hollow Ichigo's torso vanish into thin air.

"Kurosaki-kun!"

Uryu took one long look at the scene and groaned. _Great, just great. What else can possibly go wrong?_

Ichigo's hollow looked up at the sky, where a nasty looking crack was spreading and signifying the imminent collapse of Ichigo's inner world. He swore.

"**There ain't no fucking way I'm gonna let you die here, partner!**"

With that declaration, he fully released his power and adhered his reiatsu to the crack, preventing it from opening further. At the same time, he wrapped it around the central skyscraper, binding it to his will-

Rukia, Renji and Chad were duly surprised when Yammy smashed his way to the surface of the sand.

"Damn that glasses-wearing freak! I'm gonna rip his arms off for that!"

Any thoughts Rukia had of confronting the espada immediately went out the window as she and the others suddenly felt a reiatsu signature she had since learned to dread: Ichigo's hollow.

"W-what? What's going on up there? What happened to Ichigo?"

"Eh?" Yammy turned to look above. "Ah shit, Ulquiorra's in trouble. Oh well." He raised his massive form out of the sand as Chad returned his attention forward.

"I saw him before, but I swear he's gotten larger."

Renji snorted. "So? He's the tenth."

"Wrong there, little shinigami." Yammy grabbed his zanpaku-to. "I'm the Cero Espada. Rage Ira!"

There was a colossal explosion of energy as the espada transformed into a truly gargantuan creature, and the 10 on his chest became a zero.

And any concerns Rukia had for Ichigo were immediately forgotten.

Isshin didn't react noticeably at all, from an outside standpoint. His gaze was firmly fixed on the building in which Kuromaru was placing a very elaborate spell. But he sincerely hoped that his son would have the strength of will to pull through. It would not do if he was forced to kill his son, on top of his failure to save Masaki. _Ichigo, you have your old man's strengths. Get yourself together, for my sake as well as yours…_

"You are a strange woman," Ulquiorra commented idly. "Do you fear me?"

Inoue locked eyes with him and mustered herself. "N-no."

Ulquiorra cocked his head. "Indeed."

Uryu stepped in front and aimed his bow, a Seele Schnieder nocked and ready. "You won't touch her."

The espada took a step forward. "It is useless, boy. You cannot hope to succeed where your comrade has failed."

Out of the corner of his eye, Uryu saw a flash of movement from where Ichigo was. "Perhaps, but what if he has yet to fail?"

Ulquiorra's eyebrows twitched before his instincts threw his body out of the way. A clawed fist pulverized where he'd been standing, and he turned to face his opponent.

The hole in his chest was nowhere near as large as before, but still present. He had gained a considerable increase in height, longer hair, and devil-like horns. He also possessed slimmer arms and legs, with tufts of hair or fur around the ankles and wrists. The remnants of his robes stubbornly clung to his body. The new Ichigo glared at Ulquiorra before opening his mouth and letting out a roar that cracked the dome. Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed.

"So you've fallen even lower? I should have expected as much."

Zangetsu leapt from the ground and flew into Ichigo's hand, where he caught it and then snapped it into a ready position. The wake of his swing further damaged the dome. "_**The time for talk is over. Up for round two, ya stuck up prick?**_"

Ulquiorra's eyes widened. "You're not-"

He had no time to finish that sentence due to the fact that Ichigo had suddenly closed the gap and slammed the hilt of his zanpaku-to into his face. Ulquiorra folded backward, doing little to slow Ichigo's swing before the hybrid reversed direction and unleashed a point-blank upward Getsuga Tensho into the espada's back.

"Ungh!"

Ulquiorra rode the blast before pushing off and turning to face Ichigo once more. "You are not Kurosaki. Who are you?"

"_**I'm his hollow side!**_ _**Don't see how it matters, asshole!**_" With that, hollow Ichigo raised Zangetsu in a vertical mock salute, hilt level with his eyes before lifting it in a two-handed grip and forming a cero between his horns. "_**Eat this!**_"

Ulquiorra barely dodged the Getsuga Cero, retaliating with a Lanza del Relampago.

"_**Missed meeeee!**_" the hollow called in a sing-song voice, before a column of destructive light energy materialized. "_**Whoee! That was a close one!**_"

The espada narrowed his eyes before pointing and firing a Cero Oscuras, tearing off an entire right arm. The hollow immediately vanished and reappeared behind him, more than a little furious.

"_**That HURT you asswipe!**_" He retaliated with a powerful downward slash with his right, and followed with a vicious uppercut from his newly regenerated left arm that almost tore the espada's head off while simultaneously reversing his grip on Zangetsu. Then he blurred and reappeared above Ulquiorra's prone airborne form and rammed the blade down into his chest. "_**Let's see how this goes the SECOND time around!**_" Then he slammed a fist full of energy into the hilt. "_**Buh-bye!**_"

A single dark bolt of energy lined the air for a full second, passing through sword and body, before exploding in a dark mirror of the Lanza del Relampago attack. The column blasted a good section of the dome flat before dissipating. The hollow tossed Ulquiorra's torso off his blade to land directly in front of Orihime before swinging the blade to a neutral stance similar to Kuromaru's.

"_**Getsuga Tensho Keishi **_(Moon Fang, Piercer of the Heavens, Execution)_**, bitch**_."

**And for the first time, you got to see Ichigo and his hollow use a cooperative technique. However, it only compensates for Ichigo's lack of control. Hope you liked the fight! Review please!**


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